Module 2 Educator’s Guide Overview · scales of analysis. Connections to mathematics skills are easily made ... the industrial, commercial agriculture common to the developed coun-tries

1

Geography StandardsThe World in Spatial Terms

• Standard 1: How to use maps and

other geographic representations,

tools, and technologies to acquire,

process, and report information

from a spatial perspective

Places and Regions• Standard 5: That people create

regions to interpret Earth’s com-

plexity

Human Systems• Standard 9: The characteristics,

distribution, and migration of

human populations on Earth’s

surface

Environment and Society• Standard 14: How human actions

modify the physical environment

• Standard 15: How physical

systems affect human systems

• Standard 16: The changes that

occur in the meaning, use, distribu-

tion, and importance of resources

The Uses of Geography• Standard 18: How to apply

geography to interpret the present

and plan for the future

Science StandardsUnifying Concepts and Processes

• Change, constancy, and measure-

ment

Science and Technology• Abilities of technological designs

• Understandings about science and

technology

Science in Personal and SocialPerspectives

• Population growth

• Natural resources

• Environmental quality

• Science and technology in local,

national, and global challenges

Module 2 Educator’s Guide Overview

Where will yournext meal comefrom?: Inquiriesabout food, people,and environmentModule OverviewThis module includes three investigations dealing with agricultural systems

and the environmental problems and opportunities related to these

systems, including their capacities for sustaining human populations.

Investigation 1: Is there a future for subsistence agriculture?Investigation 1 focuses on subsistence ways of life, which are based on

ancient practices far removed from modern technology and urban indus-

trial livelihood patterns. After looking briefly at three main types of subsis-

tence agriculture, students investigate intensive subsistence agriculture,

specifically Asian rice production, and they interpret satellite images for

clues about challenges to the future of this type of agriculture. Students

debate the proposition that subsistence agriculture will continue to play a

significant role in feeding the populations of the developing world. In

contrast to subsistence agriculture, Investigation 2 deals with the indus-

trial, commercial agriculture common in the developed countries in North

America and Europe.

Investigation 2: What is industrial agriculture?The focus is on the high-energy- and technology-using system of commer-

cial agriculture in the developed, industrial world. Students investigate

industrial agriculture as a system of inputs and outputs, compare it to

subsistence agriculture, examine its effects on human and physical

landscapes, and consider how changes in technology are transforming the

way it operates. A debate or forum about industrial agriculture enables

students to argue its advantages and disadvantages and discuss the

ability of agriculture to support future populations without degrading the

environment.

Investigation 3: Who will feed the world?Building on their knowledge of agricultural systems gained from the first

two investigations, students look critically at the capacities of these

systems for sustaining human populations in a world where one of six

people suffers from hunger. Students work in groups to investigate

population growth and agricultural production in major world regions and

consider how developments in technology and monitoring systems will

contribute to feeding people in the future. The investigation concludes

with an investment challenge in Mozambique. Students work in groups to

make recommendations for improving agricultural production in this

country.

2

Mathematics StandardsData Analysis and Probability

• Formulate questions that can be

addressed with data; and collect,

organize, and display relevant data

to answer them

Measurement• Understand measurable attributes

of objects and the units, systems,

and processes of measurement

Algebra• Analyze change in various contexts

Representation• Use representations to model and

interpret physical, social, and

mathematical phenomena

Technological LiteracyStandards

Nature of Technology• Standard 2: Core concepts of

technology

Technology and Society• Standard 4: The cultural, social,

economic, and political effects of

technology

• Standard 5: The effects of

technology on the environment

• Standard 6: The role of society in

the development and use of

technology

The Designed World• Standard 15: Agricultural and

related biotechnologies

Module 2 Educator’s Guide Overview

Connection to the CurriculumWhere will your next meal come from?: Inquiries about food, people,and environment is an instructional unit—about 3 weeks in length—that

can be integrated, either in whole or in part, into high school courses in

world geography, demography, nutrition, population geography, economics

and economic geography, agricultural geography, regional geography, and

global studies. The material supports instruction about economic develop-

ment and population growth, as well as the dynamic interactions between

physical and human environmental change at both local and regional

scales of analysis. Connections to mathematics skills are easily made

because the material requires students to work with a large amount of

quantitative data in graphic and tabular form.

TimeInvestigation 1: Five to six 45-minute sessions

Investigation 2: Four to eight 45-minute sessions

Investigation 3: Four to eight 45-minute sessions

3

Is there afuture forsubsistenceagriculture?Investigation OverviewThis investigation focuses on subsistence ways of life, which are based

on ancient practices far removed from modern technology and urban

industrial livelihood patterns. After looking briefly at three main types of

subsistence agriculture, students investigate intensive subsistence

agriculture, specifically Asian rice production, and they interpret satellite

images for clues about challenges to the future of this type of agriculture.

Students debate the proposition that subsistence agriculture will continue

to play a significant role in feeding the populations of the developing

world. In contrast to subsistence agriculture, Investigation 2 deals with

the industrial, commercial agriculture common to the developed coun-

tries in North America and Europe.

Time required (as follows):

Introduction and Part 1: Two 45-minute sessions

Parts 2 and 3: One or two 45-minute sessions

Parts 4 and 5: Two 45-minute sessions

MaterialsBriefing (one copy per student)

Log (one copy per student)

Computer with CD-ROM. The Mission Geography CD contains color

graphics and links to the World Wide Web.

Reference materials such as encyclopedias

World atlases

Optional: Access to the Internet for data gathering

Content PreviewIt is usually impossible to correctly answer questions about the future,

such as the question posed in the title of this investigation. Rather, this

question is meant to raise awareness and to encourage speculation and

skepticism about the future capacity of subsistence agriculture to feed

the rapidly growing populations in the developing world. Several argu-

ments could be made based on the content of this investigation, but the

central conclusion is most likely to be close to this: because of environ-

mental constraints, primarily shortages of land and water, subsistence

farming will be less and less able to support, in the long run, the rapidly

growing populations in poor countries. The task of feeding future popula-

tions will probably require both the cessation of rapid population growth

and a surplus-producing, high technology-based, and environmentally

sustainable agriculture, such as is discussed in Investigation 2 of this

module.

Geography Standards

Standard 14: Environmentand Society

How humans modify the physicalenvironment

• Explain the global impacts of human

changes in the physical environment.


How physical systems affecthuman systems

• Analyze examples of changes in the

physical environment that have

reduced the capacity of the environ-

ment to support human activity.


The changes that occur in themeaning, use, distribution, andimportance of resources

• Analyze the relationships between the

spatial distribution of settlement and

resources.

Geography SkillsSkill Set 4: Analyzing GeographicInformation

• Make inferences and draw conclu-

sions from maps and other geo-

graphic representations.

Skill Set 5: Answering GeographicQuestions

• Evaluate the answers to geographic

questions.

Module 2 Educator’s Guide Investigation 1

4

Classroom ProceduresBeginning the Investigation1. Hand out copies of the Briefing to each student

and have them read the Background and

Objectives. Draw out discussion with such

questions as:

• What do you know about subsistence

agriculture?

• What most surprised you in the Background?

• The title of the investigation raises the question

of whether subsistence agriculture has a future.

Why would this be argued?

• Why do you think subsistence agriculture might

continue to be important?

• What is the estimated number of people

supported by intensive subsistence farming in

the world? (This is the first question on the Log,

so it can be used to draw attention to the need

to give answers on the Log throughout the

investigation. The answers to the Log questions

are found at the end of this Educator’s Guide.

Give students a schedule for completing the

Log.)

2. Form students into FAO (UN Food and Agriculture

Organization) teams.

• Teams work together to collect information from

the Briefing and answer questions on the Log.

• Debate the proposition that subsistence

agriculture will continue to play a significant role

in feeding the populations of the developing

world in the future.

• Assign groups for the debate: half in favor and

half opposed to the proposition.

• Emphasize the importance of working together

to gain the expertise needed to debate at the

end of the investigation.

Developing the Investigation3. For Question 1 in Part 1: Where is subsistence

agriculture found?, students are asked to

describe the three types of subsistence agriculture

in the world by completing the table. They should

use atlases and print and/or electronic sources of

information (see Additional Resources).

• Have each group complete the whole table.

• Or, to save time, divide the work: each group

does only one type and then shares with the

other groups.

• Use the answers to the Log in this Educator’s

Guide to direct students’ understanding of the

questions.

4. Figure 1 in the Log is a world map of the

distribution of these three main agricultural

practices. To answer Question 1, students will

need political maps or atlases to locate the

countries where these practices are found.

5. Parts 2, 3, and 4 of the Briefing provide basic

information about intensive subsistence agriculture.

• Students can work through these parts in

groups, independently, or as a class.

• In any case, ask and answer questions to keep

students on task and moving through the

materials.

• These parts provide the information needed to

answer Questions 2 and 3 on the Log.

6. In order to answer Question 4, students should see

that Figure 9 contains a time series of three

infrared images of Beijing and its surroundings.

• The caption explains that the light blue color is

the infrared signature of concrete, which roughly

corresponds to the urban area of Beijing.

• The surrounding area in red primarily represents

agricultural land.

• The caption also notes that each image is 35

kilometers wide.

• With this information, challenge students to

measure the urban area of Beijing in each of the

three years. The following procedure can be

used:

− On the screen or on a color printout, measure

the area of the blue core in the middle of each

image.

− Make a linear scale for the images by using a

sheet of paper along the width of one of the

images; tick off the image width and call that

35 kilometers.

− Make ticks at half the width, which is

17.5 kilometers, 1/4th is 8.75 kilometers, and

3/4ths is 26.25 kilometers.

− Using this scale, measure the blue core in

each image by treating it as a square. For

example, the blue area in 1976 was roughly

8 x 8 kilometers or 64 square kilometers, for

1984 it was 9 x 9 or 81 square kilometers,

and for 1991 it was roughly 18 x 18 or 324

square kilometers.

7. To answer Question 5, encourage students to

speculate about what they observe in Figure 10.

• They might guess that the streams of white are

clouds or smoke.


5

• Actually, it is smoke from land-clearing fires.

• Forests are being burned to clear the land for

intensive agriculture.

• Explain to students that to feed ever-increasing

populations, more cleared land is required for

agriculture.

• This results in rapid deforestation in many

developing areas that are experiencing strong

population pressure.

• Deforestation can be a serious problem because

the soils of many tropical rainforests have too

few nutrients to support intensive agriculture.

(Students may have prior knowledge of this

fact.)

• But in areas where recent volcanic eruptions

have enriched the soils with nutrients, such as in

this part of Indonesia, the soils may be able to

support intensive farming.

• A lot of deforestation in Indonesia is leading to

intensive subsistence agriculture, made possible

by soils derived from volcanic ash.

Concluding the Investigation8. In preparation for the debate, have each group

answer Question 6, either for or against the

proposition.

9. Conduct a formal debate as a whole class, with

groups assigned to opposing positions on the

proposition:

Resolved: Subsistence agriculture will continue

to play a significant role in feeding the

populations of the developing world in the 21st

century.

Note: Students will not be able to develop, using

only the Briefing, all of the possible arguments in

this issue, so it is important that you direct their

discussion with the points found in the Key to the

Investigation Log.


10. Instead of a formal debate, you may wish to have

students individually or in groups write down three

reasons to support a “yes” answer and three

reasons for a “no” answer. Post their reasons on

the board in two columns and use them to direct

class discussion.

Evaluation• Evaluate the Investigation Logs using the answers in

this Educator’s Guide.

• Ideas suggested for extension and enrichment may

also be used for evaluation.

Additional ResourcesImages and information on the Sahel in Africa

http://kidsat.jpl.nasa.gov/kidsat/photogallery/

africa_sahel.GIF

Excellent information on deforestation

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/

Deforestation/

Information on related environmental issues studied by

Earth Observing System

http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/eos_edu.pack

Images of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, deforestation that are

detailed enough for analysis in a laboratory setting

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/LandSat/

santa_cruz.html

An on-line class on global land use issues, many of

which are related to this investigation

http://see.gsfc.nasa.gov/edu/SEES/globa/class/

A good resource for students to see and read about the

circumstance of families is:

Peter Menzel. 1994. Material World: A Global FamilyPortrait. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books. This

book also exists on a CD.

Good overviews of the concepts presented in this

investigation can be found in:

Getis and Fellmann. 1995. Human Geography.Landscapes of Human Activities. Fourth

Edition. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.

Rubenstein. 1994. An Introduction to HumanGeography. New York: Macmillan.

6


Log

1. Characteristics of major types of subsistence agriculture

Characteristic PastoralNomadism

ShiftingCultivation

IntensiveSubsistence

3 countries

representative of type

Namibia, Kenya, Mali, Niger,

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia,

Chad, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and

others

Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia,

Nigeria, Tanzania, Chad, Senegal,

Indonesia, and others

India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia,

Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mexico,

Peru, and others

Climate Hot and cold dry climates (tundra,

steppes, savannas, deserts)

Humid tropical (rain forests) Warm to temperate humid climates

or dry climates with irrigation

Percentage of world

land area covered

20% 25% 10%

Population density

(high, medium, or

low)

Low Low to medium High

Percentage of world

population supported<1% 5% 50%

Output per unit area

(High, medium, or

low)

Low Medium High

Output per unit of

human effort (high,

medium, or low)

High Medium Low

Other Reliance on herd animals (cattle,

sheep, goats, reindeer, horses);

people move with herds

Clear plots in forest for planting;

when soil loses fertility in 2-3

years, shift to other plots

Small, permanent, irrigated,

fertilized plots, produce rice and

vegetables

2. On the timeline below, write in the annual activities of traditional wet rice double cropping in China.

Turn soil with wooden plow and water buffalo; rake smooth,

fertilize, and water the plot; transplant seedings into plot

Weeding and watering

Weeding, watering, and fertilizing

Allow rice to draw starch; let water out to dry rice; harvest in late

June or early July

Separate rice from stalks, vegetable gardening Vegetable gardening

Turn soil with wooden plow and water buffalo; rake smooth,

fertilize, and water the plot; transplant seedlings into plot

Weeding and watering

Weeding, watering, and fertilizing

Allow rice to draw starch; let water out to dry rice; harvest in

November or early December

Separate rice from stalks

Jan

Feb

Mar

April

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

7


3. Identify six important features of intensive subsis-

tence agriculture on your own as you read the

Briefing:

• Growing a variety of crops helps reduce risksfrom crop failure, which can be caused by poorweather or pests.

• Labor is divided among the rice fields and thevegetable garden.

• Supports large, densely settled populations inregions of the world with large populations likeIndia, China, and Southeast Asia.

• Families must produce enough food for survivalon very small parcels of land.

• The same fields are planted year after year.• Livestock are generally not permitted to graze in

any area that could be used for crops.• Little grain is used for animal feed, and cattle are

limited by lack of grazing land.• Subsistence farmers grow rice in much of

Southeast Asia, Southeast China, and EastIndia.

• Fish are cultivated in aquaculture pondsintegrated with intensive agriculture.

• In drier areas where irrigation can be provided,a variety of crops are grown, including wheat,barley, oats, corn, sorghum, millet, soybeans,cotton, hemp, and flax.

• As the need for expanded production rises,many farmers terrace the hillsides of rivervalleys.

• Where intensive agriculture expands into tropicalrain forests, special problems of deforestationmay occur.

• Land for cultivation is lost to expanding urbanareas.

4. Using the information on Figure 9, provide a

quantitative description of the changes over the 15-

year period shown by the three images. How do

these changes challenge subsistence agriculture?

Since each image extends 35 kilometers from leftto right, students should be able to make a roughestimate of the changing size of the urban core ofBeijing—the blue area in the center of each image.

In 1976, Beijing occupied about 60 squarekilometers; in 1984, about 80 square kilometers;and in 1991, about 300 square kilometers. Theseare rough estimates and students should not beheld to exact figures, but they should be able toexplain that urban growth of Beijing has severelyeliminated many square kilometers of farmland. Byextension, you should explain that Beijing is onlyone example. Cropland is being lost to urbanexpansion in many of the world’s regions.

5. What do you think is shown in Figure 10, and how

might this be related to intensive subsistence

agriculture?

• They might guess that the streams of white areclouds or smoke.

• Actually, it is smoke from land-clearing fires.• Forests are being burned to clear the land for

intensive subsistence agriculture.• Explain to students that to feed ever-increasing

populations, more cleared land is required foragriculture.

• This results in rapid deforestation in manydeveloping areas that are experiencing strongpopulation pressure.

• This can be a serious problem because the soilsof many tropical rain forests are too poor innutrients to support intensive agriculture.(Students may have prior knowledge of this fact.)

• But in areas where recent volcanic eruptionshave enriched the soils with nutrients, such as inthis part of Indonesia, the soils can supportintensive farming.

• A lot of deforestation in Indonesia is leading tointensive subsistence agriculture, made possibleby soils derived from volcanic ash.

6. List arguments, either for or against the proposition

that subsistence agriculture will continue to play a

significant role in feeding the populations of the

developing world in the 21st century.

Arguments that support the proposition might

include:

• If, by significant role, we mean millions of

people, subsistence agriculture will continue to

feed a significant number of people, although

admittedly an increasingly large proportion of

populations will depend on commerical, surplus-

producing agriculture.

• Entire ways of life—traditional livelihood patterns

such as Asian subsistence rice culture—will not

quickly disappear; cultural and economic

changes do not occur easily.

Arguments against the proposition might include

the following:

• Populations in the developing world are

increasingly dependent on the food surpluses

produced by the developed world.

• Urban expansion will cause a loss of suitable

farm land.

• Soil fertility will become depleted by

deforestation on poor agricultural soils.

8


• Limitations will be caused by shortages of water

for irrigation—agriculture will face increasing

competition for water from urban, industrial, and

other uses.

• Because populations are moving out of

agriculture and into urban industrial modes of

life, there will be too few subsistence farmers to

feed ever-increasing populations.

• Of the total world population, the proportions of

urban populations are increasing, and rural

(agricultural) populations are decreasing,

meaning that the role of subsistence agriculture

in feeding populations must decrease and the

role of commercial, surplus-producing

agriculture must increase.

9

BackgroundWill subsistence agriculture continue to feed the

billions of people that currently depend upon it?

Unlike the large-scale, surplus-producing, industrial

farmers in the developed countries of North

America and Europe, subsistence farmers produce

only enough to feed themselves and their families.

Subsistence agriculture, which is mainly found in

the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin

America, feeds half of the world’s population. More

important is the fact that the population in the

developing countries is increasing much faster than

it is in the developed countries. Intensive subsis-

tence rice farming supports nearly three billion

people, mostly in Asia. (Much smaller numbers of

people practice other forms of subsistence agricul-

ture, such as shifting cultivation in humid tropical

regions and nomadism in dry regions.) Subsis-

tence ways of life, which are based on ancient

practices far removed from modern technology and

urban industrial livelihood patterns, are disappear-

ing. This investigation will help you speculate

about the role subsistence agriculture will play in

feeding the populations of the developing world in

the 21st century.

ObjectivesIn this investigation, you will

• describe and locate three major types of subsis-

tence agriculture,

• develop expertise about Asian intensive subsis-

tence agriculture,

• interpret NASA satellite imagery to identify

challenges to the survival of intensive subsis-

tence agriculture, and

• debate the future of intensive subsistence

agriculture.

Part 1. Where is subsistence agriculturefound?Imagine that you are a geographer working for the

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

(FAO). You are a member of an FAO team as-

signed to investigate the role of intensive subsis-

tence agriculture in the world. You will debate

whether this type of agriculture will continue to

support populations in the developing world in the

21st century.

Module 2, Investigation 1: BriefingIs there a future for subsistence agriculture?

1

Three main types of subsistence agriculture are

a) pastoral nomadism,

b) shifting cultivation, and

c) intensive subsistence.

Describe these types by completing the table for

Log Question 1. In addition to the information in

this activity, you should use atlases and other print

or electronic reference materials to complete the

tables.

Your team should now use the remainder of this

investigation to develop expertise about intensive

subsistence agriculture.

Part 2. How is intensive subsistenceagriculture practiced?Intensive subsistence agriculture maximizes food

production on relatively small fields that are care-

fully cultivated, fertilized, and irrigated. Intensive

subsistence agriculture occupies less than 10 per-

cent of the world’s land area but supports about

half of the world’s population. Intensive subsis-

tence agriculture dominates in regions with large,

densely settled populations, such as India, China,

and Southeast Asia (Figures 2 and 3).

Intensive subsistence agriculture can support large

populations. Families must produce enough food

to survive on very small parcels of land. To ensure

as much food production as possible:

• no land is wasted,

• fertilizer (usually manure) is used,

• double cropping is common,

• the same fields are planted every year,

• livestock are usually not allowed to graze on

land that could be used for crops, and

• little grain is planted for animal feed.

Rice is widely grown by subsistence farmers in much

of Southeast Asia, Southeast China, and East India.

Rice production involves several steps. Farmers use

water buffalo or oxen to plow the field, or paddy. The

paddy is then flooded (Figure 2). Dry seeds are then

scattered through the field, or seedlings are trans-

planted from a nursery (Figure 3). The plants grow

submerged in water for about three-fourths of the

warm, wet growing season, and harvesting is done by

102

hand. This wet rice cultivation must be

done on flat land (like river valleys and

delta regions). As the need for expanded

production rises, many farmers terrace

the hillsides of river valleys to produce

more flat land.

Wet rice cultivation requires a constant

supply of water through irrigation and

drainage. Figure 4 is a Space Shuttle

image of Bangkok, Thailand, showing

the network of canals used for irrigation

for agriculture and domestic water

consumption.

Figure 2: Chinese rice farmer using a hand-operated pump to draw water from a canal

Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/Ph9716-e.htm, FAO photo by F.

Botts

Figure 4: Space Shuttle photogra-phy of Bangkok, Thailand

In an infrared photograph, the vegetation appears

reddish in hue. In this west-looking view, the city of

almost four million people has a vast network of canals

that are used for irrigation and drainage.

Source: http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/STS45/

10064754.htm


Figure 3: Indian women farmers transplant-ing rice

Although women produce more than half the food grown globally, in

many countries their nutritional needs are met only after men and

children have had enough.

Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/PH9737-e.htm, FAO

photo by G. Bizzari

113

Part 3: How is wet rice traditionallycultivated in China?

Farmers in some of the more remote parts of China

(such as Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, inland parts of

Fujian and Zhejiang, inland/mountain parts of

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and some areas of

Sichuan) still practice traditional wet rice farming.

They plant two crops of rice a year (double-

cropping) where it is warm and wet. In the double-

cropping cycle, farmers

• turn the soil with an iron-tipped wooden plow

pulled by a water buffalo early in March and

August;

• rake the plowed soil smooth, fertilize, and

water the plot (they must keep the water in

the rice field at the proper level as the plants

grow);

• transplant rice seedlings from seedbeds into

the prepared plot from the middle of March

and August (the entire family works in the

field taking seedlings by the bunch and

pushing them into the soft, water-covered

soil, as shown in Figure 3);

• weed the crop in April and September

(weeding is done by hand, and everyone old

enough for such work participates);

• weed and fertilize again in May and October;

• allow the rice to stand to “draw starch” to fill

the hull of the kernels (they let water out of

the fields when the kernels draw enough

starch, and both soil and stalks dry under

the Sun); and

• harvest in late June or early July and in

November; they cut off rice plants a few

inches above the ground with a sickle; then

they separate the rice from the other parts of

the crop (Figure 5), which are used for fuel.

When harvest work is done, farmers begin plowing

for the next crop. They use the slack season of the

rice crop for vegetable gardening. In the hot and

damp period of late spring and summer, they grow

eggplant and several varieties of squash and

beans. After harvesting a crop of vegetables, they

turn the soil and break up the clods with a digging

hoe, and level it with an iron rake to prepare for a

new crop. They weed vegetables constantly, water

with the long handled wooden dipper two or three

times a day, and fertilize often (Yang 1959).

Answer Question 2 on Log.


Figure 5: Women winnowing rice inMyanmar

Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/PH9722-e.htm, FAO

photo by G. Bizzarri

124

Part 4. What are other types of intensivesubsistence agriculture?

In addition to wet rice cultivation, intensive subsis-

tence agriculture also occurs in drier areas where

irrigation is available to provide water for crops

during dry seasons. The land is still fully planted

with a variety of grains and other crops. These

include wheat, barley, oats, corn, sorghum, millet,

soybeans, cotton, hemp, and flax. For example,

intensive subsistence wheat agriculture is found

around the Great Wall of China in a desert region

of north-central China, about 700 kilometers west

of Beijing (Figure 6).

In many wet areas, aquaculture, or fish farming, is

practiced, usually integrated with agriculture

(Figures 7 and 8). Fish provide an important

source of protein. In a world of land and water

scarcity, fish ponds have an advantage over

feedlots in producing low-cost animal protein. In

contrast to meat production, which is concentrated

in industrial countries, some 85 percent of fish

Figure 6: Intensive subsistence wheatagriculture around the Great Wall, north-central China

This radar image, taken on August 3, 1995, shows a segment of the

Great Wall. Most of the image is taken up by rectangular patterns

indicating agricultural development, primarily wheat fields. The Great

Wall appears as a thin orange band, running from the top to the

bottom of the left image. The wall is easily detected from space by

radar because its steep, smooth sides provide a prominent surface for

reflection of the radar beam.

Source: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radar/sircxsar/gwall.html


Figure 7: Mulberry fields and fish pondsin Jiangsu province in eastern China

Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/PH9811-e.htm,

FAO photo by H. Zhang

Figure 8: Indian workers harvest carpraised in an inland aquaculture pond

Source: http://www.fao.org/NEWS/FOTOFILE/ph9711-e.htm, FAO

photo by I. de Borhegyi

135

farming is in developing countries. China, where

fish farming began more than 3,000 years ago,

accounted for 21 million tons of the 31 million tons

of world aquaculture output in 1998. India was a

distant second with 2 million tons. Other developing

countries with large aquaculture production include

Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand (Brown

2000).

Complete Question 3 on the Log.

Part 5. What are the challenges to inten-sive subsistence agriculture in the 21stcentury?

This investigation began by posing the question of

whether intensive subsistence agriculture will

continue in the 21st century. The answer to this

question may depend upon current and future

challenges to this form of agriculture. Examine

Figure 9 for clues to one important challenge to

subsistence agriculture, and write your observa-

tions on the Log at Question 4.

To consider another challenge to intensive subsis-

tence agriculture, study the image in Figure 10,

which shows an area in the southern part of

Borneo, in Indonesia, and record your observations

in the Log at Question 5.


Figure 9: Urban expansion of Beijing,China, over 15 years, as seen by thegrowth of the area in light blue color,which is the signature of concrete inthe infrared image

Source: http://see.gsfc.nasa.gov/edu/SEES/globa/class/

Chap_8/8_Js/8-03.jpg

Beijing, China, LANDSAT scene 123/32Data extract is 35 kilometers wide

26 Oct 1976

MSS

03 Oct 1984

MSS

16 May 1991

TM

146


Now that you have completed a basic investigation

of intensive subsistence agriculture, your team

should:

• Brainstorm arguments either for or against the

proposition that intensive subsistence agriculture

will continue to play a significant role in feeding

the populations of the developing world.

• List these arguments on your Log at Question 6.

• You can use these arguments in a debate on the

proposition.

Figure 10: Space Shuttle view of aportion of the Kalimantan region insouthern Borneo, Indonesia, (3.5S,113.5E) taken in September, 1991

Source: http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/STS48/

10065058.htm

ReferencesBrown, Lester R. 2000. Fish farming may soon overtake

cattle ranching as a food source. Worldwatch Institute

Alert 2000-9.

Conklin, H.C. Hanunoo agriculture, FAO Forestry Develop-

ment Paper No. 12. In Getis, Getis, Fellmann. 1995.

Human geography. Landscapes of human activities.

Fourth Edition. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque,

Iowa, page 261.

Yang, C.K. A Chinese village in early communist transition.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, 1959. In Getis, Getis, Fellmann. 1995.

Human geography. Landscapes of human activities.

Fourth Edition. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque,

Iowa, page 263.

157

Module 2, Investigation 1: LogIs there a future for subsistence agriculture?

1. Use individual or group research to complete the table below.

Characteristic PastoralNomadism

ShiftingCultivation

IntensiveSubsistence

3 countries

representative of

type

Climate

Percentage of

world land area

covered

Population

density (high,

medium, or low)

Percentage of

world population

supported

Output per unit

area (high,

medium, or low)

Output per unit of

human effort

(high, medium, or

low)

Other

1)

2)

3)

1)

2)

3)

1)

2)

3)

168

Fig

ure

1: W

orl

d a

gri

cult

ura

l pra

ctic

es m

ap

Mod

ule

2, In

vest

igat

ion

1: L

ogIs

ther

e a

futu

re fo

r sub

sist

ence

agr

icul

ture

?

179


2. On the timeline below, write in the annual activities of traditional wet rice double-cropping in China.

Write the steps for crop #1 on the left and for crop #2 on the right.

3. Identify six important features of intensive subsistence agriculture on your own as you read the Briefing.

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

1810


4. Using the information on Figure 9, provide a quantitative description of the changes over the 15-year

period shown by the three images. How do these changes challenge subsistence agriculture?

5. What do you think is shown in Figure 10, and how might this be related to intensive subsistence

agriculture?

6. List three arguments, either for or against the proposition that subsistence agriculture will continue to

play a significant role in feeding the populations of the developing world in the 21st century.

1

What is industrialagriculture?Investigation OverviewThis investigation focuses on the

high-energy- and technology-using

system of commercial agriculture in the

developed, industrialized world. Students

investigate industrial agriculture as a system of

inputs and outputs, compare it to subsistence agriculture, examine its

effects on human and physical landscapes, and consider how changes in

technology are transforming the way it operates. A debate or forum

about industrial agriculture enables students to argue its advantages and

disadvantages and discuss the ability of agriculture to support future

populations without degrading the environment.

Time required:

Introduction and Part 1: One or two 45-minute sessions

Part 2: One or two 45-minute sessions

Parts 3 and 4: One or two 45-minute sessions

Part 5: One or two 45-minute sessions

MaterialsInvestigation Briefing and Log, one for each student

Computer with CD-ROM drive. The Mission Geography CD-ROM

contains color graphics needed for this activity.

Content PreviewIndustrial agriculture, which is typified by the highly productive commer-

cial agricultural system in the United States, is important to understand

because it produces most of the world’s food and fiber. But there are two

major issues: (1) because it relies on fossil fuels, which are nonrenew-

able resources, its ability to support world populations in the long run is

problematic, and (2) because it sometimes produces serious environ-

mental degradation, it may not be sustainable. Whether or not technol-

ogy can solve these problems is an open question.

Classroom ProceduresBeginning the Investigation1. The first sentence of the Briefing asks: “Where did your last meal

come from?”

• Ask if it came from subsistence agriculture, which students may

have studied previously in this module.

• Ask for student responses to initiate discussion.

• Then say that this investigation will help them understand the type

of agriculture that provides the food they eat.

Geography Standards

Standard 1: The World inSpatial Terms

How to use maps and other geo-graphic representations, tools, andtechnologies to acquire, process,and report information

• Produce and interpret maps and other

graphic representations to solve

geographic problems.


How human actions modify thephysical environment

• Evaluate the ways in which technology

has expanded the human capacity to

modify the physical environment.

• Explain the global impacts of human

changes in the physical environment.

• Develop possible solutions to sce-

narios of environmental change

induced by human modification of the

physical environment.

Standard 18: Uses ofGeography

How to apply geography to inter-pret the present and plan for thefuture

• Develop policies that are designed to

guide the use and management of

Earth’s resources and that reflect

multiple points of view.

Geography SkillsSkill Set 3: Organizing GeographicInformation

• Select and design appropriate forms

of graphs, diagrams, tables, and

charts.

Skill Set 4: Analyzing GeographicInformation

• Make inferences and draw conclu-

sions from maps and other geo-

graphic representations.


2

Alternative: This will take more time than #1

above.

The first sentence of the Briefing asks: “Where did

your last meal come from?” Have students

• list what they ate and drank for breakfast, lunch,

dinner, and snacks in one day;

• list the places of origin of each of those foods

and beverages by both interviewing managers at

stores and supermarkets and reading labels (A

Big Mac, a pizza, a mocha latte, and a banana

split have many ingredients and therefore many

places of origin.);

• collate the information for the class as a whole

into two lists: foods and places of origin of

foods; and

• mark the places of origin on a world map.

Focus class discussion on

• popularity of types of foods;

• spatial distributions and patterns of places of

origins of foods;

• speculations about how various foods are

produced, including any common elements of

agricultural production; and

• any problems or issues regarding agriculture

that students may know about.

Developing the Investigation2. Hand out copies of the Briefing and Log to each

student or to small groups of students.

• Students can work on this activity individually,

but it is recommended that they work in small

groups—pairs or triads are especially recom-

mended.

• You may wish to form groups to take sides in a

debate or in a forum, as suggested in Conclud-

ing the Investigation, #12 below.

3. Leaf through the materials with the students and

point out:

• the underlined questions to be answered on the

Log at the end of the materials (the answers to

the questions are found at the end of this

Educator’s Guide) and

• a schedule for completing the questions.

4. Have students read the Background and Objec-tives sections and then take any questions they

may have.

5. Set students working through the Briefing, begin-

ning with Part 1. How productive is industrialagriculture? which looks at the output of industrial

agriculture; Part 3 will look at the input side of the

system. Emphasize the importance of

• carefully studying and discussing the tables and

figures, including the satellite images;

• working on group answers to the Log questions;

and

• graphing the data from the 3 tables in Part 1—

graphing helps students grasp the relationships

and trends portrayed in the tables.

6. To monitor progress and to keep students moving

through the Briefing at roughly the same pace, ask

students to give their interpretations and examples of

• key concepts (e.g., input-output system, produc-

tion, productivity, landscape patterns, calorie

comparisons, sustainability, precision agricul-

ture, etc.),

• the satellite images, and/or

• use the Log questions (or other questions) to

generate class discussion.

7. The purpose of Part 2: What do the landscapesof industrial agriculture look like? is to help

students practice skills of satellite image interpreta-

tion and to learn that industrial agriculture is an

important geographic phenomenon because it

• creates many different landscape patterns on

Earth’s surface,

• transforms physical landscapes into human

landscapes, and

• varies from place to place because of environ-

mental and human differences.

Tell students that a geographic landscape can have

both physical and human characteristics.

8. Part 3: What inputs does industrial agriculturerequire? deals with the input side of the input-

output system.

• It helps students understand why industrial

agriculture is so productive, but

• it distinguishes different kinds of productivity—

those based primarily on labor inputs and those

based primarily on energy inputs from fossil

fuels.

9. Students may need assistance understanding

some of the arguments presented. For example:

• Eisenberg, quoted in Part 4: What problemsdoes industrial agriculture create? is criticiz-

ing industrial agriculture for its negative environ-

mental effects.

• Students should understand that industrial

agriculture requires inputs, such as fertilizer and

herbicides that can damage the environment if

they are misused.


3

• Although these practices can produce large

amounts of food and fiber in the short run, they

also have the potential to produce serious

environmental effects in the long run.

• Technological changes may have unintendedconsequences. For example, contaminated

water supplies may be an unintended negative

consequence of using chemical fertilizers to

increase production.

10. Of course, technological changes may, in turn, also

help address unintended negative consequences—

they may solve some of the negative environmental

effects of industrial agriculture. One such change

is the use of remote sensing for precision agricul-ture, which is presented in Part 5: How areimprovements in technology reshaping indus-trial agriculture? Precision agriculture is a

concept that students (especially urban students)

may find difficult.

• You may need to help students interpret the

images of agricultural landscapes.

• Students should understand that agricultural

fields are rarely uniform and therefore are not

uniformly productive.

• Fields will often have areas that are wet and dry,

high and low, salty and less salty, clayey and

sandy, and the like.

• Remote sensing and precision agriculture assist

in tailoring the appropriate amount of seed,

fertilizer, water, herbicides, and pesticides

needed to increase the productivity on small,

nonuniform areas within the larger fields.

• Such precision allows for better estimates of

inputs and outputs.

• Precision agriculture can also reduce negative

environmental effects, e.g., the use of too much

fertilizer, which can contaminate ground water.

11. At the end of Part 5, students compare the informa-

tion given on two images—one a black and white

land use map (Figure 9) and the other a color

enhanced satellite image (Figure 10).

• They are asked (Question 14) about how the

information available from the two images differs

and how the “new” information from the satellite

image might help them in farming this area in

North Dakota.

• The key to Question 14 offers a range of appro-

priate changes that students might offer.

Concluding the Investigation12. Organize a debate or a forum about industrial

agriculture. For example:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages

(“pros” and “cons”) of industrial agriculture?

• Will industrial agriculture be able to feed future

populations? Why?

• Is industrial agriculture environmentally sustain-

able? Why?

• To support their positions in a debate or discus-

sion, students should bring in new information to

supplement the data in this activity. For ex-

ample, perspectives favoring industrial agricul-

ture may be found on web-sites for Cargill (http:/

/www.cargill.com) and ADM (http://

www.admworld.com).

• Have students write statements that they believe

would represent the positions of key parties in

the debates about industrial agriculture, and

then have them use these statements in a

dialog/round-table. Examples of roles could be

a gene scientist working for Genentech, an ADM

executive, a World Wildlife Fund representative,

an official of the United Nations Food and

Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Secre-

tary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

13. Have students create a graphic organizer summa-

rizing the inputs and outputs of industrial agricul-

ture. Use the space in the Log for Question 16.

14. Have students role-play an international panel of

experts charged with making policy recommenda-

tions for the improvement of industrial agriculture.

15. Debrief the investigation by discussing the Logs.

You may wish to use the Objectives listed at the

beginning of the Briefing to organize the debriefing.


4

EvaluationLog1. Complete a graph of the data given in Table 1.

What do these data tell you about agricultural

trends?

Because of the dramatic increases in the productivity offarm labor, fewer and fewer farmers have producedmore and more food. Productivity rose very little from1900 to 1950 but made large gains from 1950 to 2000.

2. Graph the data in Table 2. What do these data tell

you about agricultural trends?

There is actually less cropland per person devoted tograin crops today than there was in 1950, but cropproductivity and production have increased. The mostrapid rates of increase occurred in the period 1960 to1980. Since then, production rate increases appear tobe less rapid.

3. Graph the data given in Table 3. What do these

data tell you about agricultural trends?

The graph shows that the size of farms has increasedwhile the number of farms has decreased. Decreasesin the number of farms appear to have been most rapidin the period from 1950 to 1970. The number de-creased very little from 1980 to 1990.

4. Agriculture was described as an input-output

system. Write down three other examples of an

input-output system and explain your examples.

Examples abound, including

• manufacturing, fishing, mining, lumbering;• education, health care, Social Security, national

defense; and• a bicycle, a car, computer, bank account,

interest-bearing savings account, etc.

5. Explain the difference between “production” and

“productivity” using examples that are not found in

these materials.

Production: amount of output (“product”) of asystem, e.g., the number of pounds of beef pro-duced last year in Nebraska, number of tons of fishcaught by the fleet in Alaska in 1999, etc.


2000199019801950 1960 1970

0.40

0.35

0.30

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

2000

1750

1500

1250

1000

750

500

250Gra

in P

roduction (

mill

ion o

f m

etr

ic t

ons)

Area of Grain CroplandGrain Production

Are

a o

f Gra

in C

ropla

nd (h

ecta

res p

er p

ers

on)

1990198019701940 1950 1960

500

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

6.5

6

5.5

5

4.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

2

Num

ber

of F

arm

s (

mill

ions)

Average Size of FarmsNumber of Farms

Avera

ge S

ize (a

cre

s)

20001900

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

19801920 1940 1960

Avera

ge N

o.

of

People

Fed b

y

One U

.S. F

arm

er

Year

5

Productivity: ratio of input to output, or amount ofoutput per amount of input, e.g., 20 loaves of bread(the output) was produced with one hour of labor(an input) is a measure of productivity of labor; totalcosts of mining a ton of iron ore; etc.

6. Describe the trends in industrial agricultural pro-

duction and productivity in the 20th century.

• An American farmer fed seven people in 1900and 96 people in 1999.

• In 1920, about 30 percent of Americans werefarmers, but by 1990 only 2 percent farmed.

• Grain production expanded five times as muchsince 1900 as during the preceding 10,000years.

• From 1950 to 1989, the amount of grain crop-land in the world fell from 0.23 to 0.14 hectaresper person, yet the amount of grain productionrose from 650 to 1,700 million metric tons.

7. In Part 2: What do the landscapes of industrialagriculture look like? you were shown satellite

images of only a few examples of these land-

scapes. Write down two more examples of differ-

ent landscapes of industrial agriculture that you

have personally seen.

Examples abound:

• feed lots for hogs and cattle;• intensive vegetable production, such as pota-

toes, carrots, lettuce, onions, etc.;• intensive fruit and flower production, such as

oranges, apples, cherries, peaches, carnations,roses, etc.;

• packing houses, bakeries, and other industrialbuildings to process food and other agriculturalproducts;

• sheds for mass production of chickens, turkeys,and eggs; and

• grain elevators, bins, warehouses, railroad,truck, and port facilities for storage and shippingof agricultural products.

8. What are the characteristics of industrial agricul-

ture? In other words, what do all the examples of

this type of agriculture have in common? List as

many characteristics as you can:

• monocropping (only one crop per field)• use of manufactured fertilizers, herbicides, and

pesticides• use of hybrid or genetically altered seeds• use of specialized machinery: tractors, com-

bines, cultivators, seeders, pickers, balers,dryers, etc.

• use of irrigation (although some products ofindustrial agriculture are not irrigated, thetendency to irrigate has grown rapidly)

• all or nearly all of the product is distributed greatdistances and sold in specialized markets

9. What natural resource is used to make fertilizers,

pesticides, and farm machinery? List three other

agricultural inputs that come from this natural

resource.

Fossil fuels, particularly petroleum and natural gas,are used to make fertilizers, pesticides, and farmmachinery. Other inputs dependent on petroleumor natural gas include:• fuel to run farm machinery, such as tractors,

combines, irrigation pumps, and grain dryers;• fuel to run trucks, trains, and ships that distribute

the inputs to the farmer and the outputs to theconsumer; and

• energy used to process, package, and marketagricultural products.

10. Do you think the increasing use of fertilizer in

industrial agriculture is a practice that can be

sustained in the future? Why?

This question, which raises the fundamentalconcern of sustainability, requires more criticalthought than a yes or no answer. Sustainability is acontested term, but generally it is understood todenote a practice that does not unduly degradehuman and physical systems and will last into thefuture. The increasing use of energy-basedfertilizer will put a strain on the available sources offossil fuels. Unlike renewable resources such ashydroelectric, wind, and solar power, fossil fuels arefinite or nonrenewable resources. Also, fertilizeruse can have negative effects on soil and watersupplies. Therefore, it is possible to conclude thatthis is not a sustainable practice in the long-termfuture. On the other hand, improvements intechnology have contributed to better methods ofextracting fossil fuels without skyrocketing priceincreases. It is also possible to argue that technol-ogy will continually improve to meet demand, suchas by finding new ways to extract fossil fuels,finding alternative ways of producing and/orapplying fertilizers, and producing altered seedsthat require less fertilizer.

11. By what measure is “traditional” agriculture more

productive than industrial agriculture? By what

measure is industrial agriculture more productive

than traditional agriculture?


6

Traditional agriculture is more productive thanindustrial agriculture as measured by the inputsand outputs of energy measured in calories.Industrial agriculture is more productive thantraditional agriculture as measured by the input ofhuman labor. Industrial agriculture substitutesfossil fuels energy for labor.

12. What trends do you see in the amount of money

spent (expenditures) on agricultural production in

the United States? What is your evidence? Do

these data enable us to conclude anything about

changes in productivity? Why or why not?

Expenditures on fertilizer, labor, and (animal) feedin U.S. agricultural production from 1992 to 1997were increasing, according to the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture (Figure 6). These data only allow usto conclude that expenditures on these items roseduring that period. We would need to comparethese expenditures on inputs with production data(outputs) in order to make conclusions aboutchanges in productivity.

13. From the quote from Eisenberg and other informa-

tion you have gathered, list what, in your opinion,

may be the three biggest problems of industrial

agriculture and support your choices.

Students may list any three reasonable concerns,including the following, but be sure they supporttheir choices:• soil erosion,• contamination of water by agricultural chemicals

and waste products,• dependence on nonrenewable fossil fuels,• depletion of water supplies by increasing irriga-

tion,• silting of reservoirs,• salinization of soil from improper irrigation, and• contamination of food by agricultural chemicals

and waste products.

14. What information can you get from remote sensing,

and how would this information help you if you

were a farmer? Examine the satellite image in

Figure 10. What changes would you make on your

plot of land? Why?

Remote sensing provides detailed informationabout where crops are located, as well as how theyare developing. Farmers can use these images todetermine the location of wet spots, soil erosion,and wind damage that affect crop productivity.Remote sensing and precision agriculture help thefarmer to accurately determine how much water,seed, fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticide is requiredfor specific plots within a large field. Precisionagriculture allows farmers to be more precise in

their use of inputs, thereby decreasing costs andreducing possible environmental damage.

Students should consider recultivating andrefertilizing the areas that were accidentallyskipped. Additionally, the drown-out should betreated to increase the yield of sugar beets. Finally,there is a large planter skip in the sugar beets thatshould be replanted. It is likely that this would nothave been detected visually until later in theplanting cycle. By acting on this new information,the farmer could increase the yield of sugar beets.

15. How might the new technologies of remote sensing

and precision agriculture help solve three of the

problems of industrial agriculture that are men-

tioned in Part 4. What problems does industrialagriculture create?• Soil erosion might be reduced by identification of

eroding spots and reduction of overwatering.• Contamination of water by agricultural chemicals

and waste products might be reduced by appli-cation of only as much chemicals as needed sochemicals will not run off into water supplies.

• Depletion of water supplies by increasingirrigation might be reduced by precise applica-tion of water to eliminate overuse of water.

• Salinization of soil might be reduced by preciseapplication of irrigation water so that salt depos-its do not develop.

16. Create a graphic organizer to illustrate an input-

output model of industrial agriculture.

Students should create models similar to theexample below, but students should be given theflexibility to illustrate their understanding in a varietyof ways. Be sure that students understand and canappropriately use the concept of input-output in thecontext of agricultural production.


Industrial

Agriculture

Inputs Outputs

7

BackgroundWhere did your last meal come from? It was

probably produced by industrial agriculture, a high-

energy and technology-using system of commercial

agriculture that spans the globe. (The term “indus-

trial” is used because it is associated with industri-

alized countries in Europe and North America

rather than with the traditional low-energy and low-

technology subsistence agriculture of Asia, Africa,

and Latin America.) Industrial agriculture is the

dominant type of agriculture in Europe and North

America. It is also found in other countries such as

Japan, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, and

southern Brazil. It is especially associated with

agriculture in the United States. Even some

developing countries have small segments of this

type of agriculture, often found alongside traditional

forms of subsistence agriculture.

Found in a variety of physical environments,

industrial agriculture creates a variety of land-

scapes. It is highly productive when measured in

terms of labor—a single worker can produce food

and fiber (such as cotton) for large numbers of

people. Industrial agriculture is responsible for

large gains in food and fiber output, but it requires

a host of costly inputs that may cause environmen-

tal problems. In this activity, you will investigate

industrial agriculture as a system of inputs and

outputs. You will also examine the effect of this

system on human and physical landscapes, and

consider how changes in technology are transform-

ing the way this system operates. Finally, you will

debate the pros and cons of industrial agriculture.

ObjectivesIn this activity you will

• describe and explain the productivity of industrial

agriculture,

• use satellite imagery to interpret landscapes

created by industrial agriculture,

• explain industrial agriculture as an input-output

system,

• discuss environmental problems associated with

industrial agriculture, and

• explain how remote sensing and precision

agriculture are being used to increase agricul-

tural efficiency and reduce environmental

problems.

1

Part 1: How productive is industrialagriculture?Agriculture can be thought of as an input-output

system. Farmers must put land, labor, and materi-

als into the system in order to derive outputs, or

farm products, from the system. The term produc-

tion refers to the total amount of output from a

given enterprise (e.g., Jones’ farm produced

10,000 bushels of wheat last year). Productivity,

on the other hand, refers to the amount of output

(e.g., 40 bushels of wheat produced) per amount of

input (e.g., hectare of land). Generally, farmers try

to increase productivity by reducing inputs and/or

increasing outputs. Industrial agriculture has been

highly successful at increasing productivity, as the

following passage illustrates:

When [the 20th] century began, each

American farmer produced enough food to feed

seven other people in the United States and

abroad. Today [1999], a U.S. farmer feeds 96

people [Table 1*]. Staggering gains in agricul-

tural productivity in the United States and

elsewhere have underpinned the emergence of

the modern world as we know it. Just as the

discovery of agriculture itself set the stage for the

emergence of early civilization, these gains in

agricultural productivity have facilitated the

emergence of our modern global civilization.

This has been a revolutionary century for

world agriculture. Draft animals have largely

been replaced by tractors; traditional varieties of

corn, wheat, and rice have given way to high-

yielding varieties; and the world irrigated area

has multiplied sixfold since 1900. The use of

chemical fertilizers—virtually unheard of in

1900—now accounts for an estimated 40

percent of world grain production.

Technological advances have tripled the

productivity of world cropland during this century.

They have helped expand the world grain harvest

from less than 400 million tons in 1900 to nearly

1.9 billion tons in 1998. Indeed, farmers have

expanded grain production five times as much

since 1900 as during the preceding 10,000 years

since agriculture began (Brown 1999: 115).

Module 2, Investigation 2: BriefingWhat is industrial agriculture?

*Of course, one farmer does not feed 96 people all by

himself. He or she has a lot of help from the fertilizer producer,

fuel dealer, machinery builder, seed geneticist, veterinarian,

grain elevator operator, truck driver, and others who work to

support industrial agriculture.

82

Throughout this investigation, you will find ques-

tions that you should answer on the Log. The first

asks you to graph the data given in Table 1. What

do these data tell you about agricultural trends?

The key reason that industrial agricultural systems

use genetically improved seeds, pesticides,

herbicides, fertilizers, and often irrigation is that

they increase output. Since World War II, U.S.

farmers have more than doubled the total produc-

tion of grain crops (Table 2). These major grain

crops include wheat, rice, corn, oats, and barley.

Two-thirds of the world’s croplands are planted in

cereal grains that are a critical resource for feeding

human and animal populations (Brown 1987).

On the Log at #2, graph the data given in Table 2.

What do these data tell you about agricultural

trends?

Industrial agriculture has been called

“agribusiness” because of the large size of farms

and the large inputs of money required to run these

systems. Because hundreds of thousands of

dollars must be invested in today’s “corporate”

farms, the small, family-owned and operated farm

has difficulty competing and thus is in rapid decline

(Table 3).

On the Log at #3, graph the data in Table 3. What

do these data tell you about agricultural trends?

It is the nature of commercial, as opposed to

subsistence, agriculture to produce surpluses for

sale. In some countries, industrial agriculture

produces huge surpluses, which are exported to

other countries. These surpluses have great

economic importance. For example, grain sur-

pluses are vital in world trade, and wheat is the

most important grain traded. In fact, wheat is

second only to petroleum in terms of world trade

value. Five surplus-producing entities account for

90 percent of the world’s grain exports: the United

States, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and the

European Union (mainly France). The United

States exports one-third of all the wheat in world

trade, half of all coarse grains (those used mainly

for livestock feed—barley, oats, corn, millet,

sorghum), and is the world’s greatest exporter of

rice. Distribution is even more concentrated. Just


Table 3: Number and size of U.S. farms

Sources: Seitz 1995

YearNumber of

Farms(millions)

Average Size(acres)

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

6.4

5.6

4.0

2.9

2.4

2.1

170

210

300

370

430

460

Table 1: Number of people for whomfood was produced by each U.S.farm worker

Number of people

7

10

11

15

23

78

96

Year

1900

1930

1940

1950

1957

1981

1999

Sources: Seitz 1995; Brown 1999

Table 2: World grain production and areaof grain cropland per person, 1950-2000

Year

Sources: Brown 1987; 1989 (data for 1990 and 2000 are

estimated) *1 hectare = 2.471 acres

GrainProduction(millions ofmetric tons)

650

800

1,200

1,550

1,800

1,900

Area of GrainCropland

(hectares* perperson)

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

0.23

0.21

0.18

0.16

0.14

0.12

93

five privately-owned corporations control 85

percent of U.S. grain exports, 80 percent of

Argentina’s wheat exports, 90 percent of Australia’s

sorghum, and 90 percent of all wheat and corn

from the European Union. Of the five multinational

corporations—Cargill, Continental, Bunge and

Born, Louis Dreyfus, and Andre Carnac—only

Cargill began in the United States. The others

started in Europe in the 19th century. These

international giants have interests in banks, rail-

roads, shipping, and insurance as well as in

agriculture (Marshall 1991).

Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), another

U.S.-based agribusiness, have far-flung operations.

For example, Cargill markets, processes, and

distributes products at locations in 60 countries

(http://www.cargill.com). ADM’s worldwide trans-

portation network, which includes 13,000 railcars,

2,250 barges, and 1,200 trucks, links over 205

domestic and internationally based plants to

process cereal grains and oilseeds into many

products used for food, beverages, and animal

feed markets worldwide <http://

www.admworld.com>.

Answer questions 4, 5, and 6 in the Log.

Part 2. What do the landscapes ofindustrial agriculture look like?Industrial agriculture creates many different land-

scapes, including dry land cereal farming, beef

feed lots, apple orchards, and irrigated rice fields,

to name only a few. Consider, for example, a

landscape of corn and wheat near Dodge City,

Kansas (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Arkansas River and DodgeCity, Kansas, October 1995

Thousands of farm fields along the Arkansas River in western

Kansas are featured in this photograph. The Arkansas River is

observable as the dark line in the center of the picture. Dodge

City (left center), a distribution center in this wheat and

livestock area, also produces agricultural implements and

supplies. How do you think all those circles were made?

Source: http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/

photoinfo.cgi?PHOTO=STS073-704-092


Figure 2: Center-pivot irrigation insouth-central Nebraska (1986)

Source: http://www-geoimages. berkeley.edu/

GeoImages/Starrs/CENPIVOT.html

104

As with many human traces on the landscape,

industrial agriculture typically produces regular-

looking patterns, which are readily observed and

interpreted from above with satellite imagery. In

the landscapes in Figures 1 and 2, the patterns are

rectangles and circles. Rectangular crop fields

derive from the land survey system in this part of

the United States—the system of townships and

ranges based on longitude and latitude. The

rectangles in this image are wheat fields, which are

probably not irrigated. However, superimposed on

this essentially rectangular system are very large

circles. What are they?

The large, field-sized circles are formed by a

special technology called center-pivot or circlemethod irrigation. The center-pivot

machine has a large arm, supported

by wheels, that sprays water as it

rotates around a center pivot. Water

is pumped up to the surface from a

large underground aquifer (called the

Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies

much of the Great Plains of the

United States) and distributed onto

the crops in a large circle. Corn and

alfalfa, crops that require more water

than wheat, are growing in these

circular fields. Figure 3 shows a

center-pivot rig watering alfalfa.

Irrigated farming produces more per

acre than nonirrigated farming, but it

also costs more. Center-pivot irriga-

tion uses water more efficiently than

does flood irrigation, but it requires

more energy inputs. Energy, in the

form of gasoline or diesel fuel, is

required to run the pumps and

engines that drive these machines.

Currently, heavy pumping is lowering

the water table of the Ogallala

aquifer. The lower it gets, the more energy is

needed to pump the water to the surface.

Industrial agriculture includes both irrigated and

nonirrigated, or dry land, farms. In dry regions such

as the Great Plains of the United States, the

availability of water for irrigation is vital to high

levels of production of crops and livestock. To

Figure 3: Center-pivot irrigation

Source: http://clay.agr.okstate.edu/alfalfa/images/water/irrig-

02.htm

Figure 4: Lake Texoma, Okla-homa, and Texas

Source: http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/

photoinfo.cgi?PHOTO=STS068-247-079


115

ensure supplies of water, large dam projects are

often associated with agricultural landscapes

(Figure 4).

Lake Texoma (Figure 4) was created when the

Denison Dam was built on the Red River between

Oklahoma and Texas. The dam serves the region

as a source of hydroelectricity, irrigation water, and

recreation. A number of cities can be seen in this

photograph, including the city of Durant, Okla-

homa, a commercial and processing center for

agricultural products including peanuts, winter

wheat, cotton, and cattle. As with the previous

satellite images, you can see here how industrial

agriculture has left its imprint on the physical

landscape.

Industrial agriculture is not just recognizable as

corn and wheat fields utilizing center-pivot irriga-

tion. Rice production in the United States, for

example, leaves a distinct geographic landscape.

Figure 5 is a photograph of land leveled into

terraces for rice production in California.

Rice production in California is highly mechanized,

requiring only about four hours of labor per acre. In

contrast, nonmechanized rice production in much

of Asia and Africa requires more than 300 hours of

labor per acre. Mechanization includes laser

technology to precision-level rice land and estab-

lish field grades, large tractors, and heavy-duty

implements to prepare seedbeds, and combines

with half or full tracks for harvesting in muddy soils.

Aircraft are used for seeding, pest control, and

some fertilization.

Figure 5 shows terraces precisely leveled by laser

technology, which allows for the maintenance of a

uniform water depth within the basin to improve rice

production. Precision leveling also improves water-

use efficiency. Following the adoption of laser-

leveling technology in the late 1970s, more than

90 percent of California rice land was precision-

leveled (Hill et al. 2000). As with the previous

images of industrial agriculture, rice production in

the United States combines a variety of energy-

intensive techniques and leaves a specific type of

landscape observable from above.

Answer questions 7 and 8 in the Log.

Part 3: What inputs does industrialagriculture require?The tremendous gains in the productivity of indus-

trial grain agriculture in the 20th century were built

on five technologies, four of which were available

before 1900 (Brown 1999):

• irrigation, which goes back several thousand

years;

• chemical fertilizer, based upon the work of a

German chemist in 1847;

• plant breeding, from Gregor Mendel’s discovery

of the principles of genetics in the 1860s;

• short-strawed wheats and rices, from Japanese

success dwarfing cereals in the 1880s; and

Figure 5: Land levelingfor California rice pro-duction

Source: http://agronomy.ucdavis.edu/

uccerice/PRODUCT/rpic03.htm


126

• hybrid corn, from development in 1917 at the

University of Connecticut.

One should add to this list the application of huge

amounts of energy, especially petroleum, which is

needed to

• manufacture, transport, and operate farm

machinery;

• build and operate irrigation systems;

• manufacture, transport, and apply pesticides

and herbicides;

• mine, manufacture, and transport fertilizers; and

• process, package, transport, and

display food.

How have farmers increased their yield in

grain crops while utilizing less agricultural

area (Table 2)? Agricultural systems use

a variety of inputs to improve their yield.

One of the most important inputs to

industrial agriculture is fertilizer produced

from petroleum. Table 4 documents the

amount of fertilizer use throughout the

world.

Changes in the use of fossil fuels and

other energy inputs in agriculture over

time are shown in Table 5.


Table 6: Calories* of energy used to produce 1 calorie of food invarious food production systems

* A measure of heat energy, 1 calorie will raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.

Source: Adapted from Paul R. Ehrlich et al. 1977. Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment,p. 349. W. H. Freeman and Company

Calories Traditional Agriculture Industrial Agriculture

10-20

5-10

2-5

1-2

0.5-1

0.2-0.5

0.1-0.2

0.05-0.1

0.02-0.05

Coastal fishing

Low-intensity eggs

Range-fed beef

Low-intensity corn, peanuts

Wet rice

Wet rice

Ocean fishing

Feedlot beef

Intensive eggs

Modern milk from grass-fed cows

Intensive soybeans and peanuts

Intensive corn

Intensive wheat, potatoes

Intensive rice

Table 5: Energy use in world agriculture(millions of barrels of oil)

Notes: *Fuel = fuel for tractors and other farm machines, including irrigation

equipment. **Other = energy used to (1) synthesize pesticides and

herbicides, (2) manufacture farm machinery, (3) apply fertilizer, and (4) dry

grain. Figures are estimates because no reliable data exist.

Source: Brown 1987

Year Fuel* FertilizerManufacture

1950

1960

1970

1980

1985

160

321

498

789

940

70

133

310

552

646

Other **

46

91

162

268

317

Sources: Brown 1987; 1997; 1999

Table 4: World fertilizer use, 1950-1995

Year Millions ofMetric Tons

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

1995

14

27

63

112

140

120

137

The high productivity of labor in industrial agriculture

(Table 1) is made possible by the application of huge

amounts of energy. In traditional, or subsistence,

agriculture, the amount of energy used is small

compared to the yield, but in industrial agriculture,

more energy is expended than produced (Table 6).

For example, to produce and deliver to a U.S.

consumer one can of corn that has 270 calories in

it, a total of about 2,800 calories of energy must be

used. And to produce about 4 ounces of beefsteak,

which also provides about 270 calories, takes

22,000 calories of energy (Seitz 1995).

Thus, we can say that in terms of labor inputs,

industrial agriculture is highly productive, but in

terms of energy inputs, it is not. Because of this,

Barbara Ward was led to remark:

The high-energy U.S. food system is one reason

why the United States, for 5 percent of the

world’s people, is now consuming nearly 40

percent of its nonrenewable resources (Ward

1979: 92).

The use of various inputs in industrial farming

assures that fluctuations in prices affect the amount

of money spent on these inputs. Figure 6 is a listing

of costs for three farm inputs from 1992-1997.

Answer Questions 9-12 in the Log.

Part 4. What problems does industrialagriculture create?

In the following passage from a prominent maga-

zine, one critic suggests some of the problems with

industrial agriculture as it was practiced in the

United States during the 20th century.

A third of [U.S.] farmland topsoil, accumulated

over millennia, [has been lost in the last century].

For every bushel of corn that Iowa grows, it sheds

at least two bushels of soil. Farm runoff is . . . poi-

soning our drinking water . . . In 1948, at the dawn

of the chemical age, American farmers used 15 mil-

lion pounds of insecticides and lost 7 percent of

their crops to insects; today they use 125 million


Figure 6: U.S. production expenditures for commercialagriculture, 1992-97

Source: USDA http://www.usda.gov/

148

pounds and lose 13 percent. Because most agri-

cultural chemicals are made from fossil fuels, we

[use] three calories of energy to produce each calo-

rie of food we eat . . . In contrast, Tsembaga farm-

ers in New Guinea, using Neolithic slash-and-burn

methods, [use] less than a 10th of a calorie for each

calorie they eat. For each American man, woman,

and child, our agriculture [uses] 160 pounds of ni-

trogen, phosphate, and potash fertilizer each year,

and 325 gallons of water each day. The Ogallala

aquifer of the Great Plains held enough water

40 years ago to fill Lake Huron; in another 20 years

it may be too low to pump. The great dams of the

West are silting up. Sloppy irrigation and poor drain-

age . . . have caused [salty] conditions on 10 per-

cent of our crop and pasture land. Should we es-

cape the fate of the ancient empires that were done

in by erosion, we may instead face that of the

Sumerians, whose civilization crumbled as their soil

turned salty (Eisenberg 1989: 59).

Answer Question 13 in the Log.

Part 5: How are improvements in tech-nology reshaping industrial agriculture?

The use of remote sensing and precision agricul-ture is a promising attempt to reduce the reliance

upon certain inputs, while improving both crop

productivity and the environment. At the present

time, diminishing crop prices coupled with in-

creased costs have led to numerous attempts by

farmers to increase yields per acre. Increasing

irrigation, fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide have

been attempted, and excessive applications of

these inputs means more costs and increased

environmental pollution. As a result, industrial

agriculture is moving toward the use of remote-

sensing technologies and precision agriculture, a

farming technology that attempts to specify the

exact quantities of water, fertilizer, herbicide, and

pesticide needed. Precision agriculture is being

used to identify when and where these inputs

should be applied to each specific field.

At the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in

Huntsville, Alabama, managed by the Marshall

Space Flight Center, NASA scientists are collabo-

rating with university scientists in Alabama and

Georgia to apply remote-sensing technology to

support precision farming (NASA Marshall News

1999). In precision farming, growers break fields

down into regions, or cells, analyzing growth

characteristics of each cell and improving crop

health and yield by applying precise amounts of

seed, fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides as

needed. Traditionally, farmers have lacked the

ability to make close analyses of specific cells.

When they fertilized their crops, they simply spread

the fertilizer uniformly across the entire field.

Improvements in technology, including the use of

remote sensing, allow farmers to tailor the amount

of this agricultural input more precisely.

Remote sensing uses instruments on airplanes or

orbiting satellites to gather information about

Earth’s surface. These instruments, which mea-

sure electromagnetic radiation, including thermal

energy reflected or emitted by all natural and

synthetic objects, can be an excellent tool for

increasing agricultural production. As Doug

Rickman, lead scientist for the Global Hydrology

and Climate Center, stated:

We can fly over an area and precisely map its

plant quality and soil makeup—including mineral

variation and organic carbon content—in

approximately 6-foot increments. Farmers have

sought this ability for 30 years (NASA Marshall

News 1999).

Figure 7 is a remote-sensing image of land types of

the Midwest. The various colors indicate different

types of land systems that scientists can then

identify to assist agricultural production.

Using remote sensing, scientists can identify areas

that will naturally have a low yield and reduce the

amount of fertilizer applied. As Paul Mask, profes-

sor of agronomy at Auburn University, stated:

If the maximum capability of an area is 50

bushels an acre, there is no need to fertilize for

120 bushels. It does no good (NASA Marshall

News 1999).

Such precise crop maintenance benefits society in

another way, according to Mask:

Excess nitrogen can leak into groundwater.

Other fertilizers can increase pollution problems,


159

threatening public health. By adding only the

amount of fertilizer the land and the crop can

effectively use, we can reduce such problems.

When NASA began studying precision agriculture

techniques in the 1970s, the practice was ham-

pered by scientists’ inability to accomplish such

precise mapping. Measuring yield was also incon-

venient, time consuming, and often imprecise.

According to Doug Rickman:

To measure a single field of 80 to 100 acres, you

might take six soil samples from different parts of

the field, send them to a lab, and wait days or

weeks for the results. And six samples don’t give

you a very accurate measure anyway — soil

quality can vary dramatically all across that area

(NASA Marshall News 1999).

Figure 7: AVHRRcomposite imageof the centralUnited Statesshowing landcover classifica-tion

Source: http://

www.earth.nasa.gov/

visions/app_factbk99/


Remote sensing, therefore, offers an improvement

to sampling techniques that can assist precision

agriculture techniques.

The Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program is

using remote sensing to determine corn and wheat

yields in the Midwest region of the United States.

Figure 8 shows the 1998 corn yield estimates in

Iowa. This type of information assists farmers in

predicting their yields and in improving agricultural

output.

1610

Figure 8: 1998 Iowa corn yields measured as NVDI(greenness) of crops so yield predictions can bemade

In the first half of the corn growing season, strong winds and several isolated

hailstorms did large amounts of damage to the corn crops in Iowa. This image is used

to demonstrate that the areas damaged by the storms had reduced yields.

Source: http://www.kars.ukans.edu/products/iowa.htm


The Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium

(UMAC) is another group investigating the use of

remote sensing for increasing agricultural output.

UMAC is providing remote-sensing data to sugar

beet growers in the Red River Valley in North

Dakota, an important sugar beet producing region.

UMAC scientists use aerial crop scouting to

examine an area of 6 miles by 10 miles covering

St. Thomas Township in North Dakota. Let’s

imagine how this type of information is helpful to

farmers.

Scenario: Imagine that you own the farmland

mapped in Figure 9. Notice that you have three

crops (wheat, sugar beets, and potatoes) distrib-

uted together on the land. You have decided to

buy a satellite image of your plot so you can look at

a precision agriculture image of the plot to deter-

mine any needed changes. You buy Figure 10.


For industrial agriculture to increase output while

reducing the need for inputs that put strains on the

environment, techniques like precision agriculture

will need to be utilized in the future. Remote

sensing and other satellite technologies will be

extremely useful in reducing the need for fertilizers

and pesticides, while also improving crop yields.


1711

ReferencesArcher Daniels Midland (ADM)

http://www.admworld.com

Brown, Lester R. 1987. Sustaining world agriculture. In

State of the world—1987, edited by L.R. Brown et al.,

122-138. New York: W. W. Norton.

Brown, Lester R. 1989. Reexamining the world food

prospect. In State of the world—1989, edited by L. R.

Brown et al., 41-58. New York: W. W. Norton.

Brown, Lester R. 1999. Feeding nine billion. In State of theworld—1999, edited by L. R. Brown, et al., 115-132.

New York: W. W. Norton.

Cargill

http://www.cargill.com

Earth from space: An astronaut’s view of the home planet

http://earth.jsc.nasa.gov/

Eisenberg, Evan. 1989. Back to Eden. Atlantic Monthly,

November: 57-89.

Ehrlich, Paul R., et al. 1977. Ecoscience: Population,resources, environment. W. H. Freeman and Company.

Hill, J. E., S. R. Roberts, D. M. Brandon, S. C. Scardaci, J. F.

Williams, and R. G. Mutters. 2000. Rice production inCalifornia (3/13). University of California-Davis


Figure 9: Map of images shown in Figure 10

Agronomy Department.

http://agronomy.ucdavis.edu/uccerice/PRODUCT/

rpic03.htm

Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program at the University of

Kansas. 2000. 1998 Corn yield estimates in Iowahttp://www.kars.ukans.edu/products/iowa.htm

Marshall, Bruce (editor). 1991. The real world: Understandingthe modern world through the new geography. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin.

NASA’s Earth Systems Enterprises 1999 Factbook

http://www.earth.nasa.gov/visions/app_factbk99/

NASA Marshall News. 1999. As drought-ravaged ’99 harvest

proceeds, farmers turn to NASA’s Marshall Center for 21st

century solutions. Nov. 8, 1999. (Marshall Space Flight

Center http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/news/)

Seitz, John L. 1995. Global issues: An introduction. Cam-

bridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell.

Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium. 2000. Aerial cropscouting.

http://www.umac.org/new/stthomas.html

Ward, Barbara. 1979. Progress for a small planet. New York:

W. W. Norton.

Sugar Beets

Po

tato

es

Wheat

Wheat

Potatoes

Sugar Beets

1812


Figure 10: Remote sensing of North Dakota

Figure 10 is a picture taken on July 11, 1999. The area was flown over twice using the Positive Systems’ ADAR 5500 camera,

which collects half-meter resolution digital data in four multispectral bands. The spectral channels used to generate these color

composites are green, red, and infrared. In this case, crops with fully developed canopy appear red. Sugar beets, still in their

early stages, are pink, and the recently planted crops where the background soil reflectance dominates, appear green.

Source: http://www.umac.org/new/stthomas.html

1913

Module 2, Investigation 2: LogWhat is industrial agriculture?

1. Complete the graph of the data given in Table 1. What do these data tell you about agricultural

trends?

2. Graph the data given in Table 2. What do these data tell you about agricultural trends?

20001900

100

19801920 1940 1960

Avera

ge N

um

ber

of

Pe

ople

Fed b

y O

ne U

.S.

Farm

er

Year

90

10

20

30

40

80

70

60

50

Gra

in P

roduction

(mill

ion o

f m

etr

ic t

ons) A

rea o

f Gra

in C

ropla

nd

(hecta

res p

er p

ers

on)

2000199019801950 1960 1970

250

500

750

1000

1250

0.05

0.10

0.15

2014

3. Graph the data given in Table 3. What do these data tell you about agricultural trends?

4. Agriculture was described as an input-output system. Write down three more examples of an input-

output system and explain your examples.

5. Explain the difference between “production” and “productivity” using examples that are not found in

these materials.


1)

2)

3)

6.5

6

5.5

5

4.5

4

3.5

3

2.5

2

1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990

500

450

400

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

Average Size(acres)

Number

of

Farms

(millions)

2115

6. Describe the trends in industrial agricultural production and productivity in the 20th century.

7. In Part 2: What do the landscapes of industrial agriculture look like? you were shown satellite

images of only a few examples of these landscapes. Write down two more examples of different

landscapes of industrial agriculture that you have personally seen.

8. What are the characteristics of industrial agriculture? In other words, what do all the examples of this

type of agriculture have in common? List as many characteristics as you can.

9. What natural resource is used to make fertilizers, pesticides, and farm machinery? List three other

agricultural inputs that come from this natural resource.


1)

2)

3)

1)

2)

22

10. Do you think the increasing use of fertilizer in industrial agriculture is a practice that can be sustained

in the future? Why or why not?

11. By what measure is “traditional” agriculture more productive than industrial agriculture? By what

measure is industrial agriculture more productive than traditional agriculture?

12. What trends do you see in the amount of money spent (expenditures) on agricultural production in the

United States? What is your evidence? Do these data enable us to conclude anything about changes

in productivity? Why?

16


2317


1)

2)

3)

1)

2)

3)

13. From the quote from Eisenberg and other information you have gathered, list what, in your opinion,

may be the three biggest problems of industrial agriculture, and support your choices.

14. What information can you get from remote sensing, and how would this information help you if you

were a farmer? Examine the satellite image in Figure 10. What changes would you make on your

plot of land and why?

15. How might the new technologies of remote sensing and precision agriculture help solve three of the

problems of industrial agriculture mentioned in Part 4. What problems does industrial agriculturecreate?

2418

Mod

ule

2, In

vest

igat

ion

2: L

ogW

hat i

s in

dust

rial

agr

icul

ture

?

16

. C

reate

a g

raphic

org

aniz

er

to illu

str

ate

the

inputs

and o

utp

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of

industr

ial agriculture

.

Ind

ust

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Ag

ricu

ltu

re

Inp

uts

Ou

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1

Who will feed theworld?Investigation OverviewInvestigation 3 focuses on meeting

the food needs of an increasing global

population. Students work in groups to

investigate population growth and agricultural

production in major world regions and consider

how developments in technology and monitoring systems will address

these concerns in the future. The investigation concludes with an

investment challenge in Mozambique. Students work in groups to make

recommendations for improving agricultural production in this country.

Time required: Four to eight 45-minute sessions (as follows):

Introduction and Part 1: One or two sessions

Part 2: One or two sessions

Part 3: One session

Part 4: One or two sessions

MaterialsA copy of Investigation Briefing and Log for each student. The key to the

Log is included in this Educator’s Guide.

Computer with a CD-ROM drive. The Mission Geography CD contains

color graphics needed for this activity.

World atlases

Optional: Access to the Internet, which offers opportunities for extending

this activity.

Content PreviewInvestigating food production involves a number of topics. First, an

increasing global population will continue to put pressure on world

regions to increase agricultural production to meet demand. Population

growth is centered in the developing world regions including Asia and

Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Measuring agricultural production in relation to population growth puts

sub-Saharan Africa in the most tenuous position, as per capita (per

person) food production declined 12 percent between 1965 and 1985.

Increasing agricultural production will involve a variety of techniques

including satellite measurements of vegetation growth. Additionally,

investing in certain types of crops will play a key role in meeting human

demand.

Geography Standards

Standard 1: The World inSpatial Terms

How to use maps and other geo-graphic representations, tools, andtechnologies to acquire, process,and report information

• Produce and interpret maps and other

graphic representations to solve

geographic problems.

Standard 5: Places and RegionsThat people create regions tointerpret Earth’s complexity

• Use regions to analyze geographic

issues and answer geographic

questions.

Standard 9: Human SystemsThe characteristics, distribution, andmigration of human populations onEarth’s surface

• Predict trends in spatial distribution of

population on Earth, and analyze

population issues and propose policies

to address such issues.

Standard 14: Environment andSociety

How human actions modify thephysical environment

• Evaluate the ways in which technology

has expanded the human capacity to

modify the physical environment.

Standard 18: Uses ofGeography

How to apply geography to interpretthe present and plan for the future

• Use geography knowledge and skills to

analyze problems and make decisions

within a spatial context.

Geography SkillsSkill Set 4: Analyzing GeographicInformation

• Make inferences and draw conclusions

from maps and other geographic

representations.

• Use the processes of analysis,

synthesis, evaluation, and explanation

to interpret geographic information.


2

Classroom ProceduresBeginning the Investigation1. Hand out a Briefing and Log to each student and

have them read the Background section. Draw out

discussion with such questions as:

Do you think hunger and famine will be eliminated

during your lifetime? Why or why not?

What do you think Secretary Glickman meant by

his statement about an “unstable food supply”?

What do you see as the difference between

increasing food production and increasing food

availability?

What is meant by “agricultural sustainability?” Why

do you think this is an important idea?

2. Tell students that they will work in regional teams in

the first part of this activity and that they will

conclude by making group investment decisions for

stimulating agricultural production in Mozambique.

Developing the Investigation3. Have students read the Objectives and take any

questions they may have.

4. Leaf through the materials with students and point

out the underlined Log questions to be answered

on the Investigation Log at the end of the materi-

als. The key to the Log is found at the end of this

Educator’s Guide. Give students a schedule for

completing the Log.

5. Direct attention to the Scenario: Planning to feedworld regions section. Divide the class into six

teams roughly equal in size. Each team is to

represent a major world region. The six world

regions are listed in Table 2. Emphasize the

importance of studying and discussing the materi-

als as a team and of working on team answers to

the Log questions.

Alternative: If you prefer smaller teams, you may

wish to form two teams for each region. To have

students appreciate the differences in population

between these regions, you might ask them to

compute the proportional representation of the

teams using the “Percentage of World Population”

column in Table 1. For example, 55 percent of the

students would represent Region 4, and 4 percent

would represent Region 3. You might even use

these proportions to form teams, but that would

give you teams of very uneven sizes.

6. Have teams meet to locate their world region on a

map and to identify the countries that comprise

their region. Have teams share this information

with the entire class.

7. Set students working through the materials,

beginning with Part 1: How do the populations ofworld regions compare? Direct attention to Table

1, which marks each year the global population

increased by 1 billion. Have students add a

column to Table 1 by calculating the number of

years between the next billion increment. There

will be eight entries:

Growth from:

1 to 2 billion 130 years








Assist students in graphing this table at Question 1

on the Log.

8. After the regional teams have worked through Part3: What is the need for increasing agriculturalproduction?, they should begin on Part 4: Invest-ing in Mozambique. Be sure students understand

that Part 3 demonstrated that of all the major world

regions, sub-Saharan Africa will have the hardest

time producing enough food to meet demand. As a

result, Part 4 will focus on Mozambique as a case

study to investigate how agricultural production can

be increased.

Students can stay in their assigned groups, but

they are no longer representing a major world

region. Instead, they should pretend to be part of a

FAO team investigating how to increase food

production in Mozambique. The first section will

ask them to estimate the cropland use intensity

(CUI) value for 1973, 1992, and 1995 using Figures

8, 9 and 10. Students should make estimations

based on the percentages given in the figures. It is

not critical that they get the exact answers; rather,

they should understand that the CUI is currently

very low for Mozambique.


3

Students should continue to work in their groups

and have an opportunity to complete their major

task: making investment decisions for the agricul-

tural sector. Students are given the task of invest-

ing $40 million in a variety of agriculture and fishery

sectors to improve production in the country to

90,000,000 tonnes. Investments must be made in

multiples of $5 million, and students can invest as

their team desires, but they must support their

decisions on Log Question 9. Students will need

some guidance with this part of the investigation as

Table 5 provides some steering information on the

value of these investments as either a source of

consumption or foreign exchange. Table 5 pre-

sents these as multipliers, which students can

utilize to make investment decisions. They should

multiply their investment by the value of the mul-

tiple, and then multiply this again by the production

increase in tonnes to determine the investment

outcome. Remind students that they want to invest

for both consumption and foreign exchange. Point

out that the foreign exchange earned by exporting

crops can be used for consumption or to buy food

on the international market. Students should also

be encouraged to diversify in order to assist in

protecting against harmful pests or bad weather

that might destroy a single crop.

9. Have teams report their investment recommenda-

tions and reasons to the whole class, and have

the class discuss, classify, and evaluate these

recommendations according to agreed upon

criteria, such as importance, practicality, agree-

ment with facts, etc.

Concluding the Investigation10. Debrief the investigation by discussing the Log

questions. You may wish to debrief the activity

even further by referring to the Objectives listed at

the beginning of the Briefing.

EvaluationEvaluate the Logs using the answers in this Educator’s

Guide. You may wish to provide your own guidelines

for the team investment reports, or you may simply

ask for a numbered list of recommendations.

Log1. The graph of Table 1 should look like the following:

This is a classic J-curve of population growth withvery little growth, then growth increasing at greaterand greater rates (reflecting exponential growth)shown by a steeply rising curve, and finally, growthbeginning to slow as seen in the flattening of thecurve when the population is very large.

2. Using Figure 2, compare and contrast the diet in

your region with the other regions.

This will depend on the student’s choices of whichfoodstuffs to emphasize. Use Figure 2 to guideyour assessment of their answers.

3. How do you explain these differences in diets?

Diets around the world vary a great deal due to theavailability of certain foodstuffs. For example,people in the developed world can afford to eatlivestock products and fats more regularly thanpeople in developing countries. Food productionalso contributes to variation in diets, as well asdifferences in food preferences.

4. Compare and contrast the dietary energy supply

levels in your region with the other regions. Spe-

cifically, name the countries (and their levels) in

your region that have the highest and the lowest

dietary energy supplies, and compare and contrast

these with other countries with very high and very

low levels.

As with Question 2, this answer depends on thestudents’ choices of which countries in their regionto emphasize. Use Figure 3 to guide your assess-ment of their answers.


9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1Popula

tion (

in b

illio

ns)

1800 1900 20501850 1950 2000

4

5. With your team, brainstorm a list of reasons that

might account for the variations in dietary energy

supply levels between regions and countries and

within countries.

• Varying capacities to purchase food (people inricher countries can afford more livestockproducts and fats, for example)

• Different availability of foods among countries• Diets of richer countries usually more balanced

nutritionally and also contain a greater propor-tion of protein, particularly of animal origin, thanthose of the poor countries

• Developing countries’ diets characterized by ahigher proportion of cereals

• Significant variations in diet among countriesreflecting differing production capabilities,access to food types, and tastes even forcountries at similar income levels

6. According to Figure 6, which regions in Africa have

“very poor vegetation”? Why do you think this is so?

Northern Africa has very poor (or sparse) vegeta-tion because of the climate and physical land-scape. The Sahara Desert and the Sahel charac-terize this region, which has little to no rainfall on aregular basis. In the southern portion of Africa, theKalahari and other deserts limit the amount ofvegetation growth.

7. According to Figure 6, which regions in Africa have

shown “improvement” in their vegetation growth?

There are a few locations that have shown im-provement in vegetation growth. Southern Africa,parts of South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia,have demonstrated improvement. Additionally,there has been improvement in parts of centralAfrica and in western Africa near the Ivory Coast.

8. Estimate the cropland use intensity (CUI) for 1973,

1992, and 1995. How does this information assist

your group in understanding agricultural production

in Mozambique?

The CUI maps (Figures 8-10) showed that 22 per-cent of the land was cropped before independence(1973). The CUI dropped to 5 percent by the endof the civil war in 1992 and rebounded to 17percent by 1995. This information is helpful for anumber of reasons. First, it allows agriculturalagencies to identify the current state of agriculturalintensity in the country. All of these estimates arevery low, indicating that greater investment in theagricultural sector is needed. Secondly, the CUIallows for an assessment of where agriculture iscurrently practiced within the country. This isextremely useful for determining which locationsrequire future investments.

9. Put your group investment recommendations for

the $40 million in the table, and explain why you

are investing this way.

Students should complete the table in the Log toget an investment return of 90,000,000 tonnes orhigher, which was their investment challenge.

The investment decision that results in the highestproduction value is investing all $40 million intomaize or rice (resulting in a return of 120,000,000tonnes of maize or rice). This is not the most idealinvestment, however, because it forces the countryto rely on only one crop. This could be disastrous ifcertain types of weather or pests destroy the crop.Students should try to balance investments inmaize with rice and fishery products that are avaluable source of foreign exchange. In evaluatingtheir answers, however, it is more important thatstudents support their decisions. Choosing toinvest in crops, rice and maize for example, isimportant for food security. On the other hand,students may choose to invest in crops that are asource of foreign exchange for the country. In thiscase, investing in nuts or fisheries would be logical.


5

BackgroundMore than one billion of today’s six billion people

suffer from hunger. How many will be hungry when

the world’s population doubles, as it is expected to

do by the end of the 21st century? Or is it possible

that hunger and famine will be eliminated in this

century? Whether or not there will be enough food

is a matter of speculation, but we can be certain

that feeding the world will be a huge challenge. It

will affect all regions of the world and all economic,

political, social, and environmental systems. As

former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman

said, “An unstable food supply is the greatest threat

to our national security” (Smith 2000:14). Experts

believe that it is crucial that we increase both food

production and food availability to needy popula-

tions. If this can be done, we will also need to

achieve agricultural sustainability—that is, to

protect the environment against degradation from

increased agricultural production. In this activity,

you will investigate global food production and

hunger. Additionally, you will examine sub-Saharan

Africa to consider the ways that famine might be

alleviated in the future.

ObjectivesIn this investigation, you will

• compare population growth and nutritional levels

of world regions,

• consider the demands of increasing global

population upon food production,

• learn that food security requires both a food

supply and access to that supply,• consider the role of industrial agriculture in

feeding the developing world,

• examine ways that technology can help to

prevent famines, and

• make investment decisions to stimulate agricul-

tural production in sub-Saharan Africa.

Scenario: Planning to feed world regionsImagine that you are a geographer working for the


(FAO). You have recently been assigned to a team

of scientists investigating food and population

issues in a major world region. Use Parts 1 and 2

of this investigation to help you assess, and report

to the entire group, the status of population and

food production in your region.

Module 2, Investigation 3: BriefingWho will feed the world?

1

Part 1. How do the populations of worldregions compare?

Understanding world hunger requires an analysis

of the changing global population. To appreciate

how the global population has changed, look at

Table 1, which lists the years when the world’s

population reached an additional billion.

As you work through this investigation, you should

answer the underlined questions on the Investiga-

tion Log. For Question 1, make a line graph of the

world’s population from 1800 to 2043.

Nearly all of the population increase in the 21st

century will occur in the poorer, developing regions

of the world, specifically Africa, Asia (except

Japan), Latin America and the Caribbean, and

Oceania. By comparison, populations in the

industrialized, developed countries will remain

relatively constant (Figure 1).

Table 1: Years when world populationreached an additional billion

Population

1 billion

2 billion

3 billion

4 billion

5 billion

6 billion

7 billion (estimate)



Year

1800

1930

1960

1975

1987

1999

2012

2026

2043

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998; Population Refer-

ence Bureau, Inc., 1999

62

The current contributions to

world population by rich and

poor regions can be seen in

Table 2. Use the table to assess

the population growth in your

region.

Part 2. How do the dietsof world regions com-pare?

Food is divided into many types,

including animal oils and fats,

milk and eggs, sugars, roots and

tubers, and cereals. Each

region has a different proportion

of types of food in its diet (Figure

2). For example, Figure 2

shows that, in Latin America and

the Caribbean, cereals make up

40 percent of the diet, and in

East and Southeast Asia, 60

percent of the diet.


Table 2: Regional contribution to world populationand world population increase in 1998

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998

RegionPercentage

of WorldPopulation

PercentageContribution to

World PopulationIncrease

1.Eastern Europe and

Newly Independent

States

2.Sub-Saharan Africa

3.Near East and North

Africa

4.Asia and Oceania

5.Latin America and

the Caribbean

6.Industrialized

Countries (U.S.,

Canada, Western

Europe, and Japan)

9

10

4

55

10

1

20

9

57

10

212

Figure 1: World popu-lation growth, 1750-2150 (population after1999 is estimated)

Sources: The World of Child 6

Billion. 1999. Washington, D.C.:

Population Reference Bureau and

National Peace Corps Association.

http://www.prb.org and http://

www.rpcv.org

Pop

ula

tion in b

illio

ns

73

Use Figure 2 to determine what

types of foods contribute to diet

in your world region. (In reading

Figure 2, teams assigned to

Region 1 should use column C;

Region 4 uses columns G and H;

and Region 6 uses column B.)

You can use the information from

the Log questions to help your

team develop its recommenda-

tions. Answer Log Questions 2

and 3.

About 840 million people in the

developing world suffer from

malnutrition (Table 3). With less

than 2,000 calories per person

per day on average, about

15 percent of Earth’s people live

a life of permanent or intermittent

hunger (Conway 2000). Malnu-

trition is particularly devastating

Figure 2: Share of food groups by region and country

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 1998,

The State of Food and Agriculture 1998: FAO Agriculture Series No. 31,

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9500e/w9500e03.gif

Table 3: Malnutrition in developing regions in 1998

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 1998

RegionNumber of

MalnourishedPeople

(in millions)

Percentageof PopulationMalnourished

2. Sub-Saharan Africa

3. Near East and

North Africa

4. Asia and Oceania

5. Latin America and

the Caribbean

215

37

524

65

43

12

18

15


84

to the young and elderly. Malnutrition weakens the

body’s immune system to the point that common

childhood ailments, such as measles and diarrhea,

are often fatal. Each day, 19,000 children die as a

result of malnutrition and related illnesses (Brown

1999; World Food Summit 1996).

In contrast with developing regions, in some of the

countries in Region 1 (Eastern Europe and Newly

Independent States) and Region 6 (the industrial-

ized countries—Japan, U.S., Canada, and Western

Europe), over half of all adults are medically over-

weight (Gardner and Halweil 2000). This condition

occurs when food energy intake exceeds energy

use, which contributes to the risk of death from high

blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke,

diabetes, and various forms of cancer. As can be

seen from the global distribution of dietary energy

supply levels (Figure 3), the people in some regions

are overfed and in others they are underfed.

Figure 3 is a map of the countries of the world and

their average per person dietary energy supply,

measured in kilocalories (kcal) per day. Use Figure 3

to determine the dietary energy supply levels in your

world region, and answer Log questions 4 and 5.

Figure 3: Dietary energy supply levels bycountry in 1998

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 1998,

The State of Food and Agriculture 1998: FAO Agriculture Series

No. 31, http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9500e/w9500e02.gif


95

Part 3. What is the need forincreasing agriculturalproduction?

Throughout the 1970s, the world watched in

horror as numerous African countries suffered

through droughts that led to massive famines.

The images sent around the world (Figure 4,

for example) only emphasized the belief that

there wasn’t enough food to feed the increas-

ing global population. Although scientists

have argued that famines are often caused by

peoples’ lack of access to food (access is

blocked, for example, by low incomes, political

conflicts, and wars), as opposed to a short-age of food (Sen 1981), most agree that the

amount of food must continue to increase in

the future to meet the demands of increasing

populations.

Following large increases in global agricultural

production from the Green Revolution, we still need

to increase the amount of food produced. In fact,

yields for cereals in the developing world decreased

in the period 1985-94, following the peak Green

Revolution yields (Figure 5). This recent decrease

in rice, wheat, and maize yields is an even larger

problem when population growth is considered.

Agricultural systems will be challenged in the

future, as rising population levels will put pressure

on their capacity to meet human demand. These

pressures will be felt most where population growth

is highest and incomes are lowest. This formula

points to Africa, especially the sub-Saharan region,

as the area with the greatest problem. A rapidly

growing population in Africa will demand increases

in agricultural output. Between 1965 and 1985,

total food production grew in sub-Saharan Africa by

54 percent, but per capita food production declined

by 12 percent (Turner et al. 1996).

You may have learned from the Industrial Agricul-ture investigation in this module that at the begin-

ning of the 20th century, each

American farmer produced

enough food to feed seven other

people in the United States and

abroad, but at the beginning of

the 21st century, a U.S. farmer

feeds 96 people (Brown 1999).

This staggering fact resulted from

the use of new technologies for

planting, cultivation, and harvest-

ing; irrigation and chemical

fertilizers; and plant breeding and

improvements, especially in

wheat, rice, and corn. Wheat and

rice are consumed largely by

humans, but most of the world’s

corn harvest is fed to livestock

and poultry (Brown 1999).


Figure 4: Refugee camp in Africa

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 1998,

http://www.fao.org

Figure 5: Cereal yields in developing countries from1965-1994Source: Conway 2000: 13

106

These technologies have produced enormous grain

surpluses, especially in the United States, Canada,

Europe, Australia, and Argentina. Many developing

countries have been forced to buy these surpluses

to help feed their rapidly growing populations. They

often pay for these food grains with nonfood cash

crops they grow such as coffee, tea, sugar, and

cotton. Solutions to feeding the rapidly growing

populations in the developing world must consider

industrial agriculture, along with other strategies, to

increase agricultural production.

Another part of the solution may involve the use of

new technologies to reduce the chance of famines

brought on by environmental fluctuations. For

example, NASA satellite data, which are used to

study the expansion and contraction of the deserts

and semiarid lands of Africa, are the principal

source for providing early warning of potential

famines around the African continent.

Since 1987, scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space

Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, and

the U.S. Agency for International Development

(USAID) have been cooperating on a project to

provide data to USAID’s Famine Early Warning

System (FEWS). They seek to understand natural

variations of climate that relate to desert bound-

aries and adjacent semiarid areas, and to deter-

mine any changes in climate between 1980 and

2000 (Dunbar and Kenitzer 1993).

As Dr. Compton J. Tucker, a scientist in the Labo-

ratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard, states:

The Agency for International Development of our

State Department came to us after seeing some

of our publications on remote sensing of the

Sahel of Africa and indicated it was interested in

studying the famine stricken regions in Africa.

Since we use satellites to look at vegetation in

these regions, we can obtain data on countries

that historically have been affected by famine

and do so very close to real time.

Using daily data from the National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -7, -9 and -11

meteorological satellites, scientists measure the

density of green vegetation in a specific region

every 10 days. As Tucker states:

Since 1981, we have compiled a time series of

plant-growth histories for the entire continent of

Africa, and we use it to assess current and future

vegetation growth. This information is used by

USAID’s FEWS to determine where droughts are

occurring, their severity, and how widespread

they are.

USAID’s FEWS augments the satellite data with

meteorological information and socioeconomic

information, where available, to determine the

location and severity of drought in Africa, Tucker

said. When drought conditions are detected, a

FEWS team can begin coordinating relief efforts, if

required. For example, changes in vegetation can

indicate oncoming drought. Figure 6 shows a

series of satellite vegetation models for the African

continent. The Normalized Difference VegetationIndex (NDVI) is a measure of the greenness of the

vegetation, which is used to generate assessments

and make predictions. The first image is the NDVI

taken during January 1-10, 2000. The second

image (vs Previous) is a comparison of the first

image to previous years. Finally, the third image

(vs Average) is a comparison of the first image to

the average NDVI for the continent.

NASA research and USAID’s FEWS are examples

of how improvements in technology will contribute

to agricultural productivity in various regions of the

world. At the very least, having more data on

vegetation growth and precipitation patterns should

assist in reducing the chance of famines on the

African continent.

Answer Questions 6 and 7 on the Log.


117

Part 4. Scenario: Investing inMozambique

Since sub-Saharan Africa faces the greatest

challenge for increasing agricultural production to

meet a growing population, this section addresses

a specific sub-Saharan country. Continue to

imagine that you are a geographer working for the


(FAO). Your team has been given the task of

investing $40 million to stimulate food production in

Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in sub-

Saharan Africa. Mozambique is located in southern

Africa and has been significantly affected by

colonialism and war. Mozambique was a colony of

Portugal until 1975, when an 11-year war of

independence ended with the establishment of an

independent, Marxist government. But a 17-year

civil war started soon after independence, with an

internal military uprising that was supported by

some foreign governments.

The civil war affected the people of Mozambique

severely, especially in rural areas. Hundreds of

thousands of people were killed. Over a million

people fled the country, especially to Malawi, and

more than a million others were displaced within

Mozambique (Sill 1992). Many rural people

migrated to the cities and the coast where the

government maintained control. The country went

into severe economic decline and agriculture was

disrupted, so the country could not feed itself. By

the late 1980s, Mozambique had one of the lowest

per-capita caloric intakes in the world (Sill 1992).

USAID and FEWS have been active in Mozambique

for a number of decades. As you learned earlier,

FEWS utilizes satellite images to determine the

health of vegetation in certain areas. Figure 7

shows maps of the NDVI for southeastern Africa

comparing the average with conditions in 1991.


Figure 6: Satellite vegetation analysis for Africa

Source: USAID Famine Early Warning System, 1999, http://www.info.usaid.gov/fews/imagery/sat_afr.html

128

In 1995, three years after the war

ended, USAID asked the U.S. Geologi-

cal Survey (USGS) to document the

migration of rural Mozambicans during

the civil war using LANDSAT and other

satellite data. In areas of subsistence

agriculture, cropland use intensity

(CUI) approximates population density.

CUI can also be used to connect

agricultural statistics with specific

geographic locations. For example, if

Sofala Province reports a 50 percent

rise in planted grains, CUI can identify

where in the province the grains were

planted.

Utilizing the CUI can assist your group

in deciding how to invest in

Mozambique because you can assess

the current state of agriculture in the

country. Using the process outlined

above, a small part of Mozambique

was mapped five different times,

representing various stages in the civil

war. The CUI for 1973 is represented

as Figure 8 below.

Figure 8: Estimated CUI in 1973

Source: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/slow/Mozambique/Mozambique


Figure 7: NDVI maps of southeastern Africa,including Mozambique

Source: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/slow/Mozambique/Mozambique

Note: This is animated at the above site, so you can observe the changes over

the course of one year.

13

The satellite images of the CUI in 1992 and 1995

are represented as Figures 9 and 10.

Begin your task of investing in Mozambique by

estimating the CUI from 1973 to 1995. Answer

Question 8 on the Log.


Figure 9: CUI in 1992

Source: http://

edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/

slow/Mozambique/Mozambique

Figure 10: CUI in1995

Source: http://

edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/earthshots/

slow/Mozambique/Mozambique

9

Obviously, there is still a pressing need to increase

agricultural output in Mozambique. Your team

needs to determine how to invest the $40 million in

the agricultural sector. In 1996, Mozambique had

20 million hectares of arable land, of which 10 per-

cent was cultivated (Turner 1999).

14


10

Table 4 is a breakdown of the major products in the

agricultural sector. The fishery sector is also

included, since this sector plays a key role in

meeting food needs in the country.

Your challenge is to invest $40 million and increase

the total food production to 90,000,000 tonnes.

You can invest the money however you want in

allotments of $5 million. Include an explanation for

your investment decisions.

As you invest, think about which crops are better

for consumption and which crops are a better

source of foreign exchange (money a country

makes from its exports). Remember that the

money a country earns from exporting crops can

be used to invest in crops for consumption or to

buy food on the international market. Table 5

provides some information on the value of these

crops as a source of domestic consumption and as

an export product for foreign exchange. The

multiples indicate the total return that an invest-

ment in a particular crop

produces. That is, some

crops respond to increased

investment much more than

others. To determine your

return on investment, multiply

your investment by the

multiple value. You should

then multiply this value by the

production increase per $1

million investment found in

column 1, page 14 of your

student log to determine the

change in agricultural produc-

tion as a result of your

investment. As you invest,

your group should balance

the need to increase produc-

tion for consumption with the

need to invest in products for

foreign exchange.

Use the table in the Log at

Question 9 to list your invest-

ments.

Type of agriculture

Type offishery product

Maize

Rice

Other grains

Cassava

Beans

Peanuts

CurrentProduction

(tonnes)

1,246,000

186,000

387,000

5,553,000

189,000

147,000

Sources: Turner, 1999; Mozambique Agricultural

Statistics, http://www.ine.gov.mz/sector1/agricu.htm

Table 4: Agriculture and fisheryproduction in Mozambique

Anchovies

Prawns and shrimp300,000

14,000

Table 5: Estimated multiple values for consumption orforeign exchange

*Roots include sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cassava.

**Nuts include peanuts and cashews.

Type of agricultureMaize

Rice

Other grains

Fruits/vegetables

Sugar cane

Roots*

Nuts**

Value for DomesticConsumption as

Multipliers

3

4

2

2

1

3

1

Value as Export for Foreign Exchange

as Multipliers

1

1

1

1

2

1

3

Type offishery product

Lobster

Prawns and shrimp1

1

2

5

1511


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New York: W. W. Norton.

Conway, G. 2000. Food for all in the 21st cen-

tury. Environment 42(1): 9-18.

Dunbar, B., and A. Kenitzer. 1993. NASA helpsprovide famine early warning for Africa.

Spacelink news release.

http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.News/

NASA.News.Releases/

Previous.News.Releases/

93.News.Releases/93-11.News.Releases/

93-11-29

Gardner, G., and B. Halweil. 2000. Nourishing

the Underfed and Overfed. State of theWorld 2000. New York: W. W. Norton.

Mozambique Agricultural Statistics

http://www.ine.gov/mz/sector1/agricu.htm

Sen, A. K. 1981. Poverty and famines: An essayon entitlement and deprivation.: New York:

Oxford University Press.

Sill, M. 1992. A geography of war. GeographicalMagazine, November: 45-50.

Smith, K. K. 2000. 6,000,000,000 and counting;

Feeding a Hungry World. Imaging Notes,

15(1) January/February 2000.

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London: Macmillan.

Turner, B. L. II, G. Hyden, and R. Kates (eds.),

1993. Population Growth and AgriculturalChange in Africa. Gainesville: University

Press of Florida.

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza-

tion. 1998. The State of Food and Agriculture1998. FAO Agriculture Series No. 31

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9500e/

w9500e03.htm#03-I

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza-

tion. 2000. Sixth World Surveyhttp://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/economic/

ESS/for-e.htm

USAID Famine Early Warning System

http://www.info.usaid.gov/fews/imagery/

sat_afr.html

United States Bureau of the Census. 1998.

World Population Profile: 1998.

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/wp98.html

World Food Summit. 1996. Food Security andNutrition 5.http://www.fao.org/wfs/final/e/volume1/T5-

E.htm#1.Introduction

Other ResourcesHart, J. E., and M. O. Lombardi (eds.) 2001.

Taking sides: Clashing view on controversialglobal issues. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin. Evans,

L. T. 1998.

Feeding the ten billion. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. 1995.

World agriculture: Towards 2000. U.N. FAO.

Mitchell, D. O., M. D. Ingco, and R. C. Duncan.

1997. The world food outlook. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Heileg, G. K. How many people can be fed on

Earth? In The future population of the world:What can we assume today? 2d ed. W. Lutz,

(ed.) Earthscan, 1996.

Cohen, J. E. 1995. How many people can theEarth support? New York: W. W. Norton,

1995.

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1. Make a line graph of world population from 1800 to 2043, using the data in Table 1. What does this

curve look like, and why?

2. Using Figure 2, compare and contrast the diet in your region with the other regions.

3. How do you explain these differences in diets?

4. Compare and contrast the dietary energy supply levels in your region with the other regions. Specifi-

cally, name the countries (and their levels) in your region that have the highest and the lowest dietary

energy supplies, and compare and contrast these with other countries with very high and very low

levels.

Module 2, Investigation 3: LogWho will feed the world?

1713


5. With your team, brainstorm a list of reasons that might account for the variations in dietary energy

supply levels between regions and countries and within countries.

6. According to Figure 6, which African regions have “very poor vegetation”? Why do you think this is so?

7. According to Figure 6, which African regions have shown “improvement” in their vegetation growth?

8. Estimate the cropland use intensity (CUI) for 1973, 1992, and 1995. How does this information assist

your group in understanding agricultural production in Mozambique?

1814


9. Put your group investment recommendations for the $40 million in the table below, and explain why

you are investing this way.

*Roots include sweet potatoes, potatoes, and cassava. **Nuts include peanuts and cashews.

ProductionIncrease

Per $1 MillionInvestment(in milliontonnes)

ConsumptionMultiplier

ForeignExchangeMultiplier

Investment(in U.S.dollars)

Return onInvestment

(in milliontonnes)

Type ofagriculture

Maize

Rice

Other grains

Fruits/vegetables

Sugar cane

Roots*

Nuts**

1.00

0.75

1.00

0.75

0.75

0.75

0.90

3

4

2

2

1

3

1

1

1

1

1

2

1

3

Type of fisheryproduct

Lobster

Prawns and

shrimp

1

1

2

5

0.90

0.45

Total $40 Million

Documents

Module 2 Educator’s Guide Overview · scales of analysis. Connections to mathematics skills are easily made ... the industrial, commercial agriculture common to the developed coun-tries